Johny Hendricks warns UFC 217 media not to write ‘negative’ about him missing weight, then makes weight

Johny Hendricks’ battles with the scale in recent years have been notable and numerous. Starting with UFC 200 back in 2016, Hendricks has missed weight in three of his last four bouts, including his most recent fight, a loss to Tim Boetsch at middleweight in June of this year. So it’s no surprise that he may have been a little edgy getting ready for UFC 217 this Saturday.

Hendricks is preparing to face young prospect Paulo Borrachinha on the main card of the UFC’s latest PPV offering at Madison Square Garden. And, owing to what sound like multiple misreadings of his hotel and backstage scales, it seems Hendricks was all prepared to miss weight once again. He even prepped a speech for the media, telling the assembled press not to write any negative stories about his continued inability to get it right on the scales.

“I know y’all are all media, okay,” Hendricks said, as an opener to his prepared warning. “So, I gotta tell you a quick story. Last night I… So nobody writes negative that ‘Oh, Johny Hendricks tripped, because he missed weight.’ I misjudged last night, that I thought I had some underwear that didn’t weigh anything. Well, I was wrong.

“So, instead of losing 1.4 like I should have, I drank up 1.2, which was my fault. So, I lost the 1.2, just not for the underwear count. So, I should have lost 1.4; so I should have drank only 1 pound back. So all you media people, I didn’t miss weight, I just misread the underwear. Okay! No negative. You hear me? No negative!”

But, when the New York State Athletic Commission official told him he’d hit 185.8 lbs, Hendricks realized he’d made more mistakes than misjudging how much liquid he could drink.

“All you guys, I actually misread that scale. Sombitch, I didn’t even have to do that.”

That didn’t stop him from issuing one final warning, however, before exiting the weigh-ins.

“No negative stories, you hear me? I know where every one of you live.”

UFC 217 takes place this Saturday, November 4th, in New York, NY. The card is set to be headlined by a middleweight title fight between Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre. Title fights between Cody Garbrandt & T.J. Dillashaw and Joanna Jedrzejczyk & Rose Namajunas are scheduled for the co-main events.