Johny Hendricks will return to the Octagon next year.
According to the UFC welterweight champion’s manager, Ted Ehrhardt, Hendricks is ready to return and has recovered from a surgery he had on his right bicep after winning the title by defeating Lawler at UFC 171 in March.
Ehrhardt tells ESPN that while Hendricks could return sooner, the UFC didn’t want to push him when he wasn’t ready.
“The last thing the UFC wanted was to start promoting a fight and have to postpone it if Johny had a setback,” Ehrhardt said. “He’s well past that point now but the schedule is full. He’s a main event fighter and all the main events are taken. It looks like he’ll fight sometime in February.”
Kenny Monday, Hendricks’ Team Takedown wrestling coach, said his fighter is currently at ‘about 85 percent’ and is ‘training daily without limitations.’ Monday believes Hendricks could have returned in 2014, but that the UFC’s booked up pay-per-view scheduling will keep him sidelined into next spring.
“I know everyone would have loved January, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to work out,” Monday told ESPN. “I’m thinking he fights in February or March.”
