Former UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks lost by decision to another former UFC Welterweight Champion in Georges St. Pierre at UFC 167.
The once retired GSP is now returning to action and that is a move that has surprised Hendricks.
“You know what, I am [surprised],” Hendricks said on The MMA Hour. “I wish he would’ve stayed out, but a competitor is always going to be a competitor, so we’ll see how he comes back. And I heard he might be coming to 185.”
Hendricks has since moved from welterweight to middleweight, which is the same division GSP will compete at. GSP has been gone for over three years now and Hendricks wonders if the former champion is competent enough to return to the Octagon.
“I went through my rough period, I did something, and I was able to bounce back, where whenever he [St-Pierre] went through his rough period, he got out, and now look at these guys,” Hendricks explained. “Yeah, you can train, yeah, you can do these things, but has he done enough to come back as a different fighter? Time changes, it always does. Just like I said, one day the time is going to change where I’m not going to be able to compete with these guys anymore, it’s just the way that it is. Once I showed how to defeat Georges St-Pierre, I think people are going to start using that game plan and it’s going to be so much harder on him. If you look at Chuck Liddell, you look at Randy Couture, these guys that didn’t stay out whenever they were on top, they came back and they weren’t the same fighters, you know. Three and a half years or two, whatever it is, is a long time for somebody to decrease or for everybody else to move up.”
A middleweight title bout between champion Michael Bisping and the returning GSP will happen later this year.
