Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight Johny Hendricks can take a sigh of relief.
Why? Here's a hint: It has nothing to do with is clean shave.
Following his UFC 158 war with Carlos Condit last Saturday night (March 16, 2013) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada (watch video highlights here), "Bigg Rigg" was worried about a potential injury to his left hand suffered in the fight.
However, three days after the event, Hendricks revealed his hand is free of major injuries and he will be ready to challenge reigning 170-pound kingpin Georges St. Pierre for the title whenever the champion is ready to return to mixed martial arts (MMA) action (he prefers August).
Ariel Helwani provided the following update on Hendricks' health on Tuesday's (March 19, 2013) edition of "UFC Tonight" on FUEL TV:
"Of course he had the big win on Saturday night, and after the win over Carlos Condit, he told us that he was afraid he may have broken his dangerous left hand. Well, that does not appear to be the case. I spoke to him today and he said he thinks what happened was he dislocated a couple of fingers early in the fight and then as the fight went on --of course it went the full 15-minutes-- it popped back into place. That's why he was feeling so much pain after the fight but right now he doesn't think he broke his hand and he's going to have an x-ray just to make sure everything's okay, but he's pretty confident there was no break. He's hoping that he'll get the title shot against GSP in August. He says he'll take it anywhere, anyplace, anytime. He's really still on cloud nine after getting the shot, he's in such a good mood right now."
Hendricks (15-1) earned his shot at the belt after stringing together six-straight victories, including four in a row over Top 10-ranked fighters in Condit, Martin Kampmann, Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch.
The 29-year-old is hoping to share the cage with St. Pierre this summer; however, "Rush" made it clear following his UFC 158 title defense against Nick Diaz that he is planning on taking a vacation after back-to-back camps, which could push his return to the cage past Hendricks' hopeful date.
Nevertheless, Hendricks has his shot at the belt set in stone, and now that he knows his hand injury is nothing significant, all that's remains is a date and location for the bout.