Search icon

MMA

12th Nov 2018

Former UFC champion Johny Hendricks’ bare-knuckle fighting debut went terribly

'Bigg Rigg' has endured quite a fall from grace

Darragh Murphy

A lot can change in five years

On November 16, 2013, Johny Hendricks came up just short in a welterweight title fight against arguably the greatest fighter of all time, Georges St-Pierre, but many believe ‘Big Rigg’ was robbed.

In his very next fight, Hendricks became the UFC’s 170 lbs champion but since that date, the Oklahoma fighter’s career has come off the rails.

Hendricks lost six of his last eight outings in the Octagon, missed weight three times and was knocked out in consecutive fights before he retired from mixed martial arts earlier this year.

Hendricks hung up his gloves with the intention of focusing on coaching wrestling but his competitive drive forced him into a fight last weekend.

The 35-year-old made his bare-knuckle fighting debut in Wyoming on Saturday night but was brutally stopped in the second round by former Bellator lightweight, Dakota Cochrane.

Cochrane, a former porn actor, stepped in on short-notice to replace Hendricks’ original opponent, Brennan Ward, and opened up a cut under Hendricks’ eye early on.

Moments into the second round, a right hand from Cochrane down the pipe rattled Hendricks and forced him to his knees.

After shelling up, Hendricks was put out of his misery when the referee waved the fight off.