UFC 133 – Johny Hendricks brushes off Chael Sonnen’s latest jibe ahead of showdown with Mike Pierce

UFC welterweight slugger, Johny Hendricks has been giving his thoughts on his upcoming fight with Mike Pierce at UFC 133 on August 6^th in Chicago, Illinois, as well as commenting on the latest jibe to come his way from former middleweight title contender, Chael Sonnen.
Posting via his Twitter this week, Sonnen wrote:

“Mike Pierce is going to give Johny Hendricks the type of beating that will make [Wanderlei Silva's] last fight seem like a long, drawn-out war.”

Hendricks was determined not to be outdone by the trash-talking Team Quest fighter and had the following to say to MMAJunkie.com earlier today.

“Who is Chael Sonnen? Sonnen is a guy who almost beat Anderson Silva. I’m not going to talk trash. I’m just going to state the facts. He almost beat somebody. He lost to a Brazilian. He can’t sit here and say bad things about Brazilians when his loss was against one.

“I have no beef against him; we’re not even in the same weight class. Somebody Tweeted to me (and wrote), ‘Dude, what did you do to piss off Chael Sonnen?’ I don’t know. Last time I met Chael was when he lost to Anderson, and he was nice as can be to me, and I was nice to him. For him to do that, that’s just showing the character that he is. Does it faze me? No. It’s coming from Chael Sonnen. If he said something nice, then I’d be like, ‘What’s going on?’”

“The last two or three months, all I hear is Chael talking trash to everybody. And then everybody starts listening. He was a nice guy; he did everything right for the most part. He lost, and all these circumstances started happening, and then he comes back being a douchebag and saying all these bad things about people and people start listening to him.”

Hendricks then turned his attentions to the job at hand and his UFC 133 opponent, Mike Pierce.

“He’s a grinder. He’s a guy that’s going to be constantly going forward, and he’s going to be throwing a couple of punches to get that takedown. That’s his main focus in all the fights that I’ve seen him fight, and I’ve watched almost every one of his. He does have some TKOs, but the thing I’ve been working on the most is nullifying his wrestling, just because I know if I can do that, I can get my hand raised.”

“Sometimes I think the toughest opponent of my career ends up being the easiest fight so far, and the easiest fight ends up being the toughest. So I think it’s just the mental preparedness to walk in there, however your mind is, that is going to be how you fight.”

Hendricks, another former member of the WEC roster, recently rebounded from his sole career defeat to fast rising star, Rick Story in December when he scored a vicious first round TKO win over T.J. Waldburger at UFC Fight Night 24, earning him the “Knockout of the Night” bonus in the process.