#3 Johny Hendricks
Johny Hendricks is a former UFC Welterweight (WW/170 pound) champion. Hendricks was primarily a grinding wrestler with a huge overhand left. He had a few good and bad showings in his career, and then came his controversial fight against Georges St. Pierre.
Hendricks lost that fight via a controversial decision, and the build-up to his fight against GSP was mired with accusations by GSP’s camp that Hendricks was on Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Furthermore, Hendricks’ disagreement to VADA drug increased fan speculation regarding his PED usage.
However, nothing has been proven as of yet against ‘Big Rigg’.
Hendricks went on to outpoint Robbie Lawler at UFC 171, and then dropped the belt to Lawler in their UFC 181 rematch. The loss to Lawler exposed a lot of flaws that several critics of Hendricks’ fighting style had always pointed out.
It exposed his lack of cardio and his boxing deficiencies among other things. Hendricks’ UFC career hit a downward stride thereafter, with him going 1-3 since his loss to Lawler. Hendricks’ fighting style of resorting to stalling tactics, on the ground as well as in the clinch, have earned him flak from a lot of his peers as well as MMA pundits and fans alike.
Besides, Hendricks is a fighter that has routinely struggled to make the WW limit of 170 pounds, especially after the UFC’s recent partnership with United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and the ban of IV-usage for post-weight-cut rehydration.
Considering the fact that ‘Big Rigg’ was able to bag gold in the shark tank that is the UFC WW division, it’s safe to say that luck played a huge part in Big Rigg’s brief reign as the king at 170 pounds.
