When Johny Hendricks abandoned the welterweight class, he did it with the intention of also leaving behind his weight issues. Hendrick’s final two fights at 170 pounds, saw him miss weight on both occasions, leading him to the conclusion that his body couldn’t realistically make the cut anymore. He moved up to 185 pounds and beat Hector Lombard, saying afterwards that the weight cut was the easiest of his life and that middleweight was his new home. Then, for his co-main event fight this past Sunday against Tim Boetsch at UFC Fight Night: Oklahoma City, Hendricks missed weight again, coming in three pounds over the 185-pound middleweight limit.

But speaking recently with Submission Radio, Hendricks said that this failed weight cut was an anomaly and not indicative of a larger problem. The former welterweight champion explained that thought he was easily on target to make the weight, he came down with a high fever during fight week and that complicated his cut and made it impossible to execute properly.

“Wednesday, something happened and I started running a fever. Thursday, Friday I’m sitting there going, ‘Oh my gosh.’ It’s funny because I love fans but I think that they’re the most ill-informed people and the reason that I say that is because if y’all are feeling sick, what do y’all do? If you are sick what do you get to do? You get to take a day off.

“My family was going through sickness for three weeks prior to the fight and I laughed because I didn’t get it. I was super excited. Awesome, nothing’s going on. Until you start cutting weight. I showed up and I think I was 13 [pounds] over and I drank 10 pounds of fluids that day and at that point you’re fighting not only the weight but also your body. It just sucks because 185 is not that hard to make but whenever you’re sick, it is. You’re body’s not gonna give up anything and the next thing you know, you’re trying to turn right around in 48 hours and fight for your life.”

Hendricks was stopped by Boetsch in the second round of their fight after Boetsch landed a head kick and followed up with strikes. Before that, the bout was a competitive contest with Hendricks having his moments though being unable to impose his game plan. Hendricks said that battling the illness had left him at fighting less than his best on Sunday evening.

“Whenever I was in there, things weren’t clicking like they should have. I saw a lot of openings, I got his timing down. The only thing he really hit me with was that push kick until he rocked me with that kick. . . Whenever I was sitting there, I thought I was still moving and my coach told me, ‘No, you literally just stood still.’ I really don’t know what I was thinking. Everything he did, I knew. I saw everything. There was nothing he could do and then he threw that high kick and finished it so kudos to him.”

And there’s the rub. Hendricks says he was put in a situation where none of the options were good: He could either succumb to the illness and pass on the fight, or do his best to fight the illness but miss weight and then be at less than 100 percent for the fight.

“It was just like, you’re running a 102 temperature for two days and you’re playing it that way. You’re running a high temperature and you’re trying to do everything you can. You’re not trying to kill fluids but you’re trying to keep your fluids up a little bit so that way you can fight it. I pretty much just told the commission, ‘Guys, I have to fight this fight.’ Then [the temperature] broke on Friday, late, late Friday like 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning and whenever it broke we tried to hit it hard to get that last little bit off but at that point my body was just saying, ‘Hey, we’re just trying to survive at this point.’

“Like I said, it’s not hard to make [1]85. That’s why I think it’s funny these people are like, ‘Oh he missed weight again.’ Well you know what, you have no idea. Any time you get sick you go to the hospital and what do they do? They put you in IVs and hydrate you up. Why? Because fluids help you fight the sickness. So that’s really what I was trying to do. I was trying not to put on a lot of weight [but also] if I don’t break that sickness, what do I do? Then I don’t get to fight. Then you just wasted 10 weeks of camp for nothing. So you’re in a catch 22.”

Ultimately, Hendricks chose the former because he wanted to fight and going forward, he says this won’t happen again because middleweight is a breeze to make.

“185 is so easy to make. Right now if they said, ‘You have to fight next week,’ I could make it.”

MUST-READ STORIES

Damn. Donald Cerrone ill, fight with Robbie Lawler off UFC 213, possible for UFC 214.

True. Cortney Casey says Texas doping case tarnished her reputation for nothing.

140. CSAC won’t license Renan Barao for fight at 135 pounds and Aljamain Sterling.

Big $$$. Scott Coker expects Bellator to do Ryan Bader vs. King Mo by end of the year.

VIDEO STEW

Rankings report.

Free fights.

KO of the Week.

The Reem.

Sage.

T-Wood on TMZ.

TTTHS.

Gegard got remixed.

LISTEN UP

Heavy Hands. A little early Romero-Whittaker preview.

Anik and Flo. Anik and Flo recap UFC OKC.

The MMA Circus. Leslie Smith interview.

SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

Cerrone on the worst news of the week.

Let everyone know this is not an injury. But a super bad infection in my blood. 7 days of IV and I'll be back at it. Working on getting the fight rescheduled A post shared by Donald Cerrone (@cowboycerrone) on Jun 28, 2017 at 2:06pm PDT

Barao responds in the comments.

Wanderlei on the Chael loss.

UFC did Maia dirty with this one.

Trying to get in there.

I see you lost your playmate @Ruthless_RL :( I'd be honored to stand and bang with you <3 #RuthlessVSValhalla #ufc #ufc213 — Emil Valhalla Meek (@emilvalhalla) June 28, 2017

Forever beef.

Take A Pay Cut & Fight Someone 20 Lbs Heavier. I Prepared For #TeamTiramasu Not Fat Ass Out Of Shape MJ Not My Fault K.N.Can'tHandle The Cut — Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) June 29, 2017

Did you see what uncle @danawhite say Conor vs @TeamKhabib you nobody gives a shit about you but your time will come keep talking shit — Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) June 29, 2017

I Thought That Was You Talking For #TeamTiramasu on @TeamKhabib Twitter. Let The Man Speak For Himself- Is He Scared Of The #Babayaga?!? https://t.co/kwr7zNmxBH — Tony Ferguson (@TonyFergusonXT) June 29, 2017

Would watch.

Would love to fight @ILLxWillBrooks next! September 9 Edmonton Canada @ufc — GILBERT BURNS (@GilbertDurinho) June 28, 2017

I'll let my manager know. He just talked to Shelby today so who knows, maybe it's fate. https://t.co/kNQ2tziBEg — Will Brooks (@ILLxWillBrooks) June 29, 2017

Big week for the Lima bros.

My brother got it done and he's in the finals of #TUF25! We'll be in Vegas next week! @DhLimaMMA — Douglas Lima (@PhenomLima) June 29, 2017

Megan.

Thanks for well wishes. Sorry if I let you down I'm equally as devastated, but I have to take care of me. I'll be back even more determined! pic.twitter.com/80UeS28ffA — Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) June 29, 2017

Chase Sherman building a brand by beefing with Ariel. Very smart.

I love @arielhelwani and his show. But our twitter feud can only end one way. #VanillaGorillaSmash pic.twitter.com/KnxAvMjXV8 — Chase Sherman (@ChaseShermanUFC) June 28, 2017

Nieky Holzen angling for the UFC it seems.

Savage.

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tyron Woodley (17-3-1) vs. Demian Maia (25-6); UFC 214, July 29.

Randa Markos (7-4) vs. Alexa Grasso (9-1); UFC Fight Night 114, Aug. 5.

Francis Ngannou (10-1) vs. Junior dos Santos (18-5); UFC 215, Sept. 9.

Tyson Pedro (6-0) vs. Ilir Latifi (12-5); UFC 215, Sept. 9.

TODAY IN MMA HISTORY

2001: Tito Ortiz TKO’d Elvis Sinosic to retain his UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 32. More memorably, B.J. Penn stopped Din Thomas in only his second MMA fight.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We lost Lawler-Cerrone because of course we did. The MMa gods don’t want us to have nice things. Those bastards.

Anyway, take it easy y’all and Conor bless.

If you find something you'd like to see in the Morning Report, just hit me up on Twitter @JedKMeshew and let me know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram and add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting because we post dope things and you should enjoy it.