Ben Askren offers an unpleasant assessment of Johny Hendricks’ weight miss

ONE Championship welterweight titleholder Ben Askren isn’t a big fan of one UFC counterpart, ex-champ Johny Hendricks. But it’s kind of always been that way.

As a standout wrestler at the University of Missouri, where he won two NCAA Division I national champiobships, Askren got a good look at Hendricks, who wrestled for rival Oklahoma State University, and didn’t like what he saw.

So when Hendricks missed weight for a fight with Askren’s former teammate, Tyron Woodley, at UFC 192 earlier this month, it only confirmed his opinion.

“People are finally getting to see what I’ve known about Johny for more than a decade: his pathetic excuses,” said Askren (14-0), who rematches Luis Santos (61-9-1) on Nov. 14 at ONE Championship 34, which takes place at Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore and streams as an online pay-per-view.

The undefeated Askren was referring to an interview Hendricks gave to MMAFighting.com in which he claimed that a diet heavy on deer meet had prevented him from shedding enough pounds to make the 171-pound limit required to meet Woodley.

“You were 26 frickin’ pounds over on (the) Monday (before the fight),” Askren said. “What in the world does deer meat have to do with it?”

UFC officials scrapped the bout, scheduled as UFC 192’s co-headliner, just one day before the pay-per-view event at Houston’s Toyota Center. Hendricks’ manager told MMAjunkie that the fighter suffered an intestinal blockage that led to a kidney stone.

As the result of the short-notice cancellation, Woodley is tentatively slotted to receive a title shot against the winner of an upcoming bout between champ Robbie Lawler and former interim champ Carlos Condit, which fight at UFC 195 on Jan. 2 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

But what sticks out to Askren is that Woodley wasn’t able to fight at UFC 192.

“For me, it was terrible to see Tyron robbed of an opportunity to show what he has because fighters only get to fight two or three times a year, so when you have one of those opportunities essentially stolen from you, that’s a hard thing to deal with,” Askren said.

Then again, Askren is used to speaking up for his friends. The ONE champion doesn’t really stay quiet for anybody. And if it’s about someone he doesn’t like, well, you’re going to hear what he has to say.

For more on ONE Championship 34, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.

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