Former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks thought he was done with fighting.

After a 2-6 run inside the octagon, Hendricks announced his retirement from MMA competition in late June. Not many disagree when he revealed his decision.

While his manager was still making calls on his behalf, Hendricks (18-8) said he was wrapped up in coaching others rather than his own chance to step back into the cage. He didn’t plan a comeback.

Then, an offer to fight in the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation camp up, just three days after his coach predicted he would fight again soon.

When he called the coach back to ask his opinion on fighting Brennan Ward (14-6) on Nov. 9, the coach told him to stop chatting and tell the promoter, “Yes.”

“I’ll tell you the God’s honest truth: I was done,” Hendricks, who’s set to face Ward at the Casper Events Center in Casper, Wy., told MMAjunkie Radio. “I didn’t want to do it, but (my manager) Jason (House), he called me and said these guys are interested.”

Many people have written off Hendricks after his repeated stumbles in the UFC. But the call to fight in a potentially bloody, ancient form of combat has awoken his competitive drive, he said.

Even saying the phrase bare-knuckle boxing brings a smile to the ex-champ’s face.

“I’ve always wanted to try boxing,” he said. “It just one of those things that sounds like so much fun. All I have to do is work on my hands. And if I ever get back to the MMA world, just think how much better my hands are going to be.”

Hendricks wants to hire a nutritionist to combat his long-running problems with weight.

“I don’t want to fight just to fight,” he said. “I like to win. I want to win, let’s be honest. And you train so hard, and half of it is because you don’t rehydrate as good as you could, and you can’t cut weight as good as you used to. That’s why I think having a nutritionist will elevate my game back to where it should be.”

The only other major shift in preparation is boxing without gloves, something he said he did even when he was an active UFC fighter.

“It’s actually been pretty easy,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong – boxing isn’t easy. But the fact that all I have to do is focus on one thing instead of five, it’s made life a little easier.

“One thing about bare-knuckle is that people are going, ‘Man, all it takes is just one punch, and they’re going out there and swinging for the fences, instead of using technique, using head movement, hands, to create a knockout, (and to get out injury free).'”

Hendricks signed a three-fight deal with WBKFF, he said, so he’s got some time to find out whether this new venture is a one-time experiment, or the catalyst for a major comeback.

“This body has a lot of miles left in it after a 10-month break,” he said.

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