Johny Hendricks Fought With Injury, Almost Withdrew From Title Fight

Johny Hendricks beat Johny Lawler by unanimous decision for the UFC Welterweight Title, but it appears he did it injured.

The guys over at MMA Fighting have the whole story:

The UFC’s new 170-pound champion Hendricks appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour and, though reluctant to get into too much detail until he had it checked out, divulged that an injury suffered in training nearly sidelined him. Turns out while everybody was talking about big left power bombs, Hendricks was nursing his right elbow, an injury that effectively prevented him from taking Lawler down.

"Realistically, it’s my elbow," he told host Ariel Helwani. "It happened actually a week-and-a-half before, and it happened in the first round."

When asked how it happened, Hendricks said the recurrence showed up in an early exchange.

"Throwing a hook," he said. "And whenever I threw a hook it just spazzed out. I don’t know what happened. I felt my arm actually pop. We’ll see what happens." ...continue reading

Earlier today Johny announced that he'd won the Harley Davidson motorcycle by winning the fan vote. In the Facebook video you may notice two things.

One, What happened to the beard?!

Two, he appears to be wearing some sort of therapeutic sleeve on his right arm.

If that's what he can do while injured, it's scary to think how good he could be at 100%.