Johny Hendricks may have retired from mixed martial arts, but he could be a long way from being done with combat sports entirely.
A former UFC welterweight champion, Hendricks is slated to make his bare-knuckle boxing debut on Nov. 9 against one-time Bellator title challenger Brennan Ward at World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation’s inaugural event. It’s a brand new adventure for Hendricks, who announced his exit from mixed martial arts this past June following a 1-5 slump that ended his Octagon career. And at the age of 35, with a clean slate in front of him, Hendricks is looking at his bare-knuckle move as potentially much more than mere one-off.