Josh Hendricks’ Six Year Voyage to the Octagon

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By Thomas Gerbasi

This Saturday night, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Josh Hendricks will make his UFC debut against former world title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga, and he’ll do it on the pay-per-view portion of the card no less. It’s the dream of any professional mixed martial artist, but just six months ago, fighting in the UFC was just going to be an unfulfilled wish for Hendricks.

“I had nearly given up on the sport,” admits the Wadsworth, Ohio resident. “I have a wife and a little boy, and I was looking at it as if maybe God hadn’t put it in the cards for me. Maybe this wasn’t the place for me to go. I’ve got a degree, and I started to think about stepping down from competition and maybe coaching or teaching and things like that.”

A two-time All-American in wrestling for Ashland University, Hendricks didn’t come to this realization lightly, and he didn’t do it off a string of bad luck in the ring. His personal rough patch came in 2003-2005, when he lost four of five bouts, with that period ending for good when he decided to give up hanging out with his friends at night for a more Spartan lifestyle befitting a professional athlete.

From that point on, Hendricks didn’t lose in the ring, and he put together an impressive 11 fight winning streak, with all but one of those wins coming via submission or KO. For most fighters, a streak like that would lead to bigger and better things. For Hendricks, it led to a dead end, as he was too good to be brought in as cannon fodder for a bigger name, and not a big enough name himself for a high-profile organization to take a chance on.

“I had a lot of people make me promises that they didn’t keep,” he said. “‘I can do this for you, I can do that for you’, but no one would stick a contract in front of me. I’ve been turned down several times by guys that probably would have gotten me in there (the UFC) with a win over them. I was never given the opportunity to get that win that would put me over the top. And nobody would fight me. Nobody wanted to take that chance of losing to a no name guy when they already had a name. But I needed a name to move on, so I was stuck in this gray area with a glass ceiling over my head that I couldn’t get through.”

His last fight, a 50 second win over Braden Rice via submission due to strikes, came close to a year ago, on November 21, 2007. Hendricks was busy with his family and as the manager of 18 apartment buildings in Cleveland Heights. This was finally it for his fighting career.

“That was just engulfing me,” said Hendricks of juggling work and family with life as a pro fighter. “And I can’t do anything halfway. It (fighting) just wasn’t working and it wasn’t going to work.”

But then Hendricks met John Cook of Evolve Sports Performance, and things began to change for the 32-year old, as he was hired as the manager of the gym, allowing him to train almost full-time.

“It all started laying out for me,” said Hendricks. “I think God knew that I wasn’t in a position to fight, having to work a regular job. And then he put me in a place where I now manage an MMA gym and train for a living. It’s all falling into place one piece at a time and it couldn’t be a better situation for me. My gym is literally 12 minutes from my house, and I have a supporting cast around me that is just amazing.”

With that in place, now all he needed was a fight. Enter agent Ken Pavia, who didn’t just get Hendricks any fight, but one in the UFC.

“All of a sudden Ken Pavia calls up and said ‘I made your dreams come true,’” laughed Hendricks. “And he sure as heck has. That guy has done every single thing he said he’s gonna do, and a lot more.”

Sounds like great news – there was just one catch. Hendricks’ debut was coming against the man who knocked out Mirko Cro Cop with one kick to the head and almost took Justin McCully’s arm with him back to Ludlow, Massachusetts – Gabriel Gonzaga.

“I looked at it two ways,” said Hendricks. “Like anybody else would, I thought ‘wow, this is a tough fight,’ but I’ve been waiting to get in the UFC forever and I said I’d take it. It’s a challenge, and I also look at it as an opportunity. Gabriel Gonzaga is obviously a wrecking machine and it’s an opportunity for me to go in almost unpressurized in the fact that nobody expects me to win this fight. However, with a win or a good showing, it puts me in a great position. I’d rather start with a tough guy that I know a lot about, and this way there’s no pressure or expectations. Just go out, perform well, fight hard, and show them what I can do.”

So for those who will be getting their first glimpse of Hendricks this weekend, what should they expect to see?

“I look at myself as a grinder, a guy that just has to go out and use the tools that I’ve got, get in somebody’s face, wear ‘em down and beat ‘em up,” said Hendricks, whose 18-4, 1 NC record includes 10 submissions, four of those due to strikes. “I don’t have anything particularly flashy – I just go out there and do what I need to do to win a fight. This is a game of attrition, and by the middle of the second round a lot of that technique is out the window, and it’s the guy who’s stronger and in better shape that usually wins that fight.”

And while Hendricks’ team of Cook, JP Pocock, Scott Overholt, and Ryan Madigan have done their jobs, the biggest asset to his camp for this fight may have been the two weeks he spent in the gym of the man headlining the show, Randy Couture. Brought in to mimic Brock Lesnar for the heavyweight champ, Hendricks got a crash course in what he can expect from Gonzaga and the other world-class heavyweights of the UFC, and while this might be a daunting prospect for many fighters, Hendricks is just excited to be here.

“It’s unfolded like the Yellow Brick Road right in front of me,” he said of the new lease on his MMA life, but before you comment, Hendricks knows what you’re thinking, and he’s well aware that it’s not going to be a cakewalk for him.

“Gabriel Gonzaga is an enormous oak tree standing in the middle of that road, and what I’m asking God for is to fight the best fight I can fight, a championship performance,” he said. “If it’s a win, it’s a win, if it’s a loss, it’s a loss. All I want to do is put my best foot forward and fight the best fight I possibly can. If it comes out as a win, then I’m in a great position. If it doesn’t, back to the drawing board, find me a new opponent, and go from there.”

What a difference six months can make.

“I love to compete, I love to prepare for competition, and I do this now for a different reason, which basically makes the goose pimples come up on me,” he said. “I do this for my son and my wife, and I need success and victory for that rush.”

Tickets for UFC 91: Couture vs Lesnar, are still on sale. To order tickets, click here.

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