"There's a sense of me that I sort of felt like Robbie Lawler was my title defense because of the Georges St-Pierre fight. That's the way I'm looking at it. It's not technically my title defense but I've got the same mindset. Don't get me wrong, I'll throw with whoever's the No. 1 contender. I'll fight them. I'm not going to run away from that, but there's a part of me that wants to see how I can do against Robbie Lawler, healthy. Then again, there's the part of me that wants to sort of train for Matt Brown or Rory MacDonald or whoever else is out there."
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion Johny Hendricks has the mindset that his close unanimous decision win over Robbie Lawler at UFC 171 earlier this year in Dallas, Texas, one that captured the 170-pound title vacated by Georges St. Pierre, was actually his first title defense, thanks to a UFC 167 robbery against the aforementioned "Rush." That's according to comments "Bigg Rigg" made to MMA Fight Corner when asked about his Octagon return later this year. Hendricks was barely able to squeak past "Ruthless" in "The Lone Star State" thanks to a bum bicep (pics), but is looking to prove a point in their rematch ... unless Matt Brown plains spoiler at UFC on FOX 12.