Neil Magny and former UFC Welterweight Champion Johny Hendricks are going to be the featured preliminary card fight this Friday Night at UFC 207.
However, the two fighters have met before and it happened in a Las Vegas bar in 2014, Hendricks was the UFC Welterweight Champion at that point in time.
“Before my last fight even, that was the fight my coaches and I were eyeing,” said Magny to Bloody Elbow. “I remember a few years ago being in Las Vegas for International Fight Week, where a couple of guys in the UFC, Brendan Schaub, Tyron Woodley, all just kinda went to a little bar and were hanging out and I remember seeing Johny Hendricks at the bar and he was the champ in my division at the time, and me being a young up-and-coming fighter, I was just like, ‘Wow this guy is the champion in my division, I’m standing two feet from him and he’s here drinking beers.’ I was just so motivated seeing him there, just like, I can definitely beat this guy. I know I can, but being in the bar with him, drinking beers, is not going to get me there.”
Magny hasn’t competed since being finished by Lorenz Larkin at UFC 202 this past summer, Magny learned a big lesson in that fight.
“I just 100% overlooked him,” said Magny. “I saw some film on this guy and thought he doesn’t have good wrestling, doesn’t have good submission defense. I’ll just get a takedown and submit him. I literally played out the fight being that easy in my mind.”
UFC 207 takes place on Friday, December 30 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Amanda Nunes and Ronda Rousey headlining.
