Johny Hendricks is the living, breathing embodiment of UFC Fight Night 82.
When the curtain rose in Las Vegas Saturday, both the event and its main-eventer were in need of a turnaround. Both needed a spark, an excitement infusion, a booster in the public-opinion polls.
Once the UFC welterweight champ and one of the most electrifying knockout artists in the company, Hendricks seemingly fell out of favor.
Two outstanding but close and at times visually unappealing fights with current champ Robbie Lawler—the second of which cost him his belt—started to remove the Hendricks luster. A neutralization of Matt Brown in spring 2015 got him back in the win column but nonetheless exacerbated Hendricks' reputational slide.
It hit another gear last fall, when Hendricks was hospitalized while cutting weight and forced to withdraw from his UFC 192 bout with Tyron Woodley. It's always good to make the safe move, but Hendricks was criticized for being overweight and unprepared.
And then, not even a month ago, his steakhouse closed. What more can this guy go through?
Meanwhile, this event, which aired entirely on cable TV and UFC Fight Pass (the company's subscription-based streaming service), was originally supposed to air on pay-per-view. But then Cain Velasquez got injured and pulled out of his heavyweight title fight with Fabricio Werdum. Then the champ pulled out, too. Uh-oh.
What remained, on paper, was a lackluster fight card, whose biggest name in Hendricks was a lackluster figure.
But Hendricks had his own ideas.
He came in to fight week like a man possessed, focused on his task and flashing a new six-pack in his abdominal region. The man staring across at him would do his part, as well. That would be Stephen Thompson, the multi-time world kickboxing champion who is 11-1 with six knockouts since transitioning to MMA.
Could the headliners come together to salvage the event? What about the other 22 fighters on the card? As always, the final stat lines only reveal so much. These are the real winners and losers from UFC Fight Night 82.
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