Robbie Lawler was the winner of a grueling main event Saturday night vs. Matt Brown, leaving him as the No. 1 contender for the UFC middleweight championship. The current champ, Johny "Bigg Rigg" Hendricks, defeated Lawler on March 15 of this year, but is hoping to knock off the "Ruthless" brawler once again before the calendar changes.
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In an interview with Mirror Online, Hendricks said that he is close to 100 percent following surgery to repair a biceps injury he suffered training for his March fight with Lawler that was worsened in his tough battle.
"I'm already back in full training," Hendricks said. "I work out hard until my arm gets sore. If it gets sore, then I take a step back the next day and let it recover. So I'm getting back to where I need to be, it's just going to take a little time. I've got five weeks before I go back for my last doctor's appointment, and as soon as I hit that, he'll clear me for fighting."
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Hendricks said he isn't sure when exactly he'll be back in the octagon, but he expressed hope that it won't be too long.
"I'm hoping that by the end of the year I'm back in there. It's just finding the right date. There's a lot of cards and a lot of things to do and options, so I don't even know."
It's also possible that Rory MacDonald could sneak into a title shot at Hendricks if something were to happen to Lawler between now and whenever the fight is scheduled for. Hendricks discussed why he feels he's immune to a lot of MacDonald's strengths.
"There's a lot of things that he (MacDonald) does very well. He does a lot of good things which shut people's offences down, you know what I'm saying? And it's hard to say of that's what would happen if he was fighting me because I don't care if I eat a jab to land a left hand. I think I've proven over my last several fights is that a lot of what he does to other people works on them, but not me."
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