Johny Hendricks retired.

Great collegiate wrestler. Great ww fighter for a long time. He had such an impressive run up to the title. It was literally the Mortal Kombat tower of ww's, and he made it to the final boss. I thought he won the fight against GSP, but it was so close that it's hard to fault the judges for giving it to the reigning champ.

His 2 fights with Lawler were insane. He spent a total of 75 minutes in the Octagon with two of the best WW fighters ever.

I notice that he gets put into the PED discussion a lot. I don't know if his decline was a result of USADA, poor ooc training, or fighting the absolute best at ww for 5 straight years. I don't thinks it's fair that the PED stuff gets thrown at him. It felt like a lot of the hate he got was because of his success against GSP.

But there is no denying how awesome his run up to the title and title defense were.

Once he hit that pinnacle of the WW division, it seems he lost all motivation. He can't compete with those at MW but he's not whiling to make the sacrifices needed to consistently make 170.

I don't know about the PED stuff, but it is a coincidence that his in cage decline and inability to make 171lbs coincides with USADA entering the picture. If he was using PED's he was probably using them as a shortcut to making 170 while not sacrificing what he wanted to eat. Did that give him residual power? Ask Martin Kampmann, I guess.

My favorite Hendricks moment was in the press conference, after the Stephen Thompson fight, with the look of shock and disbelieve on his face. Shaking his head, saying there's a different and new aspect to MMA that he never thought was possible. I thought he was going to retire right then and there. nawl-i-mean?        

@unbeknownst

Actually he was missing before usada. Remember he had to re weigh in for the Lawler fight?

As for the PED's, ooc before usada, no one knows what was going on. Boxing is even worse and remains that way even today. But it would be hard not to take them if this was your career. If you're a new fighter starting out and the elite fighters of your division were using, how is someone who isn't as skilled as the top guys yet going to compete if they aren't on it.

I'm not saying whether he used or not, but if he did, he most certainly wasn't the only one doing it. In fact, I would be willing to bet that quite a few of his opponents were using as well. Carlos Condit has had a similar falling off point as well, yet he escaped the scrutiny of the "PED dropoff." In fact if you look at Johny's career, this is what should happen to an athlete who isn't on peds. Same with Carlos. I'm not saying Carlos was using (in fact if I had to pick 5 who weren't, he would be one), just pointing out the hypocrisy. Maybe it has more to do with fighting an animal like Robbie for 5 rounds. Look at what happened to Rory after their fight.

To me it's more suspect when someone is winning world titles after an insanely long time in the game at an older competitive age.

I think he just lost all motivation and maybe there are other things going on in his personal life. As for the PEDS I don't know about it so I wont speak on it. He was part of great fights and really helped the welterweight division stay relevant post George ST. Pierre. That is enough for me to thank him for a great career.

@mbach4307:

I'm not saying he was making 170 easily without USADA. I think it was always a struggle with his eating habits close to weigh-ins, it just caught up to him in that Lawler fight. However the timing is, when USADA came in the picture it became impossible to make the weight. But that could be a coincidence. Some athletes lose motivation after they hit that ultimate goal and achievement. He might of just took a step back and stopped waking up early to get extra cardio in.

True, Johny's career went the way of an athlete who wasn't on PED's and simply got old. But it also resembles an athlete who was on PED's during their peak and then suddenly went cold turkey.   

@unbeknownst

I understand what you mean, and I always find myself in this same conversation anytime hendricks comes up. I just don't understand why he is ridiculed while so many other fighters are just given a pass. I'm not wearing a Johny Hendricks shirt, but I enjoyed his career and I always like seeing ncaa wrestlers get to the top of the mountain.

I just feel like this ground swell of rumors started after the GSP fight. Some of the guys I watch fights with give Anderson a pass despite popping twice, but Hendricks gets hammered with PED accusations. Some of Johny's opponents are more suspect to me than he is.

Could also b age and war wounds catching up to him.

@mbach4307:

It is true that Hendricks gets a lot of raised eyebrows when talking about his career pre and post USADA.

I think the PED talk really started when GSP said he would pay for all the pre-fight drug testing prior to their fight and Hendricks refused by basically saying it was a conspiracy by GSP to have him fail his test and avoid the fight. Hendricks also said, "I don't want to participate in anything that could jeopardize my fight with GSP. Nawl-i-mean?"      

@mbach4307

Please don't slander COndit, because your boy Hendricks was dirty.  Hendricks literally became a shell of himself the moment USADA came a knocking.

Carlos Condit had his two best fight of his career mind you, under USADA. Which was his fight with thiago alves and Robbie Lawler. He literally matrix elbow ALves into dirt. Against Robbie he landed the most shots ever in a WW title fight. He landed more shots on robbie then had ever been done to anyone in welter weight division. Carlos drop off  is clearly mental. He said going into robbie fight that he retire if he lost and keep fighting if he won. He won, but was robbed by the judges. So he was convinced to come back and just was not all in. Even voicing concerns of head trauma, it is quite evident his fall off is mental.

Johny is not that case at all. He had his worst performance after worst performance since USADA came a knocking. He was still in his prime at the time so age can not be attributed.  This was a man who was able to power bomb carlos condit 14 times in a single fight, but then once USADA came knocking would completely gas during\after the first round.  He also lost all of his speed, which was his money maker for closing the distance. He was not nearly as strong either.  Biggest tell though is that his power vanished.  That should not be possible. However that what happen, even after moving up a  weight class, he still did not have that power anymore.  That is a huge tell that he was on something. 

Also completely ducked testing with GSP fight.  He also prayed on people ignorance to cover it up. He would say I want WADA not USADA.  WADA is the standard they have it not a drug testing company, which he dam well knew, but he was tricking people because he knew the vast majority of fans had no idea what USADA or WADA was.  He also try to pretend GSP was partner with USADA so it was not above board, when that was ******** and he knew it. USADA would post pictures of the people on there site who were under there drug test, there was not partner ****, which he new but was being dishonest to trick fans.  He was one of the most obvious PED users during his run. Notorious for ballooning up in between camps, but then would come into the fight in insane shape and have cardio to go 5 hard rounds.  That **** just does not happen with out assistance, just ask Melendez.

Hendricks beat Lawler twice and GSP and they should’ve been easy decisions to call. At his best, he was the best in the world, even if only for a short time. Good move retiring. He clearly just wasn’t in to it. Great career.  Haters can go fist themselves with Carwin sized  hands. One of the great welter weights in history. Thanks for the entertainment, blood, sweat and tears. 

Haters? Or stating facts?  He dodged drug testing, lied to his fans and  his performance fell of a cliff the day random drug testing started.  Seem more like you don't want to admit it to yourself.  Why could he not make weight once random drug testing was put in place? How did he loss his knock out power?  Why did he refuse USADA testing and ask for WADA, when he knew WADA was not a testing company but a testing standard?  Why anytime he asked about PED's he shows clear signs of lying and nervousness? Power is the last thing to go, so explain to me how Hendricks lost his one punch power at 33 years old? Yes clearly people are hating and not just looking at all the things that point to PED abuse. 

* Edited at 06.28.2018, 12:57 PM ET *

You seem emotionally attached to the argument...or maybe it’s just that huge fist. I’d imagine it could be painful.

 I do need to ask, do you have any actual proof?  Then I couldn’t possibly careless about some blowhard pompous peons opinion on the inter web, other than mine own self, of course. 

 I’m not really a huge Hendricks fan. I won over 500 on Story beating him. I just am not gonna pretend he didn’t have a great career or pretend I care about anything pre USADA. I feel  He beat Lawler twice and GSP. If you’re gonna discount anyone’s success due to USADA I feel you discount everyone and every fight prior....all of Pride...Everything. 

It’s a different era. He was great and at one time the very best of his. 

Again, thanks to Big Rigg for all the fun fights, wins and losses. Great career, one of the best welterweights ever. 

@franklin

On the contrary, I stated that if I had to pick 5 fighters who I thought were clean, Carlos would be one of them.

As for the power, I don't know what happened. Could be that he was fighting the upper echelon and once they noticed he was not just a wrestler, but a dangerous striker, suddenly things changed. Other wws started to watch for his right hook as a distraction and the follow up left. Maybe it was his shoulder surgery after the first lawler fight. Maybe it was because he was off the sauce. IDK. I tend to think his drop off has more to do with the fact that he fought animals from 2010-2017. Imo, he has had one the toughest fighting schedules in the history of mma.

I guess my only question is why does he get all the shade when other fighters (some who have tested positive) don't? Like I said, other fighters (some of his opponents) are more suspect than he is. As for pre-usada, no one knows what was going on. There was no ooc testing, so basically it was anything goes.