Johny Hendricks Quotes

Part of my gift as a fighter is being a human punching bag.

I train hard every day, you know. And some days are better than others. Sometimes I punch someone in the face and sometimes I get punched in the face. But I can deal with that outcome because it's instantaneous. It's in the moment and you can learn.

I had me jaw broken, and so my chin stuck way out. That's how I became tough - I learned to pick up anything and fight back.

I was drawn to boxing because I got beat up as a kid. I was the kid with the piano books in a New York neighbourhood.

I've learned that, bizarrely, I enjoy having a fight. Obviously nobody likes getting hit, but I don't have a problem with it. In MMA you've got to take a few hits to reach the right position.

My two main trainers were John Dahmer and DJ Hyde. DJ Hyde mainly taught me how to be tough: I mean, the beatings that he used to give the students as far as wrestling initiations go were as tough as they come, and I'm thankful for it.

You have to be able to take a punch. A strong neck is really important.

I'm a white middle-class public schoolboy so I'm not particularly tough. But it turns out I don't mind going in the cage. I can dig in. And it's interesting watching people spar and train. There's no anger. It's all technique and delivered with venom.

I'm used to throwing my body around. I'm used to taking a punch.

I've been in a few fights where I keep drilling guys - Carl Froch, those sort of people - and they just keep coming.

I'm just a normal fellow who gets punched in the face for a living and gets punched really hard at times as well. But you know what? I'm all right at punching them back.

I'm a fight finisher.

Look what happened when I fought Anderson Silva. It can't possibly get worse than that. I've already seen the bottom and it wasn't that bad. I made it through. I survived. It's fighting. It's not the end of the world.

I thought boxing was stupid.

Boxing brings out my aggressive instinct, not necessarily a killer instinct.

I'm a street fighter.

People don't understand fighting. They think you just go there and stand in the middle and swing for the fence. People who fight like this are idiots.

Looking back now, I realise that belonging to the family of a labourer actually helped to prepare my body for boxing. There were many times when my family didn't have enough food or warm clothing to go around. All this made me physically, as well as emotionally, tough.

When I get finished with fighting, I hope they ask the same questions. It's not my purpose to answer them. Boxing is the art of self-defense. I knock 'em out the first chance I get.

You need to prepare for every fight.

When I train for a fight, you roll around, you catch someone in a move, you let them go. You just let go and keep going.

I get paid to get hit in the head.

My first boxing experience came at around 14. There was always confrontation in the area I grew up in. My mentality, I'll be honest, was if someone tries it with me, I want to be able to knock them out.

I enjoy the pain my body goes through. If you're in a hard moment in a fight, there's a lot of things go through your mind. But the most important thing to me is family.

Everyone's a world class ground fighter until they get a punch to the face.