Mike Dolce explains how Johny Hendricks missed weight, and how he made it

DALLAS – According to nutrition guru Mike Dolce, Johny Hendricks carries around a $1,500 scale that’s calibrated on fight week to exactly match a UFC scale used to keep fighters on weight.

Dolce believes that spendy item went a little haywire the night prior to and day of Hendricks’ biggest fight, and he blames Dallas locals for making it that way.

“We had gone to a local gym to do some weight cutting in the hot tub during fight week,” Dolce told MMAjunkie not long after Hendricks hit 170 pounds to certify Saturday’s UFC 171 main event opposite Robbie Lawler in a bout for the vacant welterweight belt. “It was actually last night.

“Unfortunately, while we were in the hot tub, and the scale was unattended, attendees of the gym were hopping on and off of it. We think the scale might have been damaged because the weight started reading inconsistently.”

UFC 171 takes place at Dallas’ American Airlines Center. The event’s main card, including the Hendricks (15-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) vs. Lawler (22-9 MMA, 7-3 UFC) headliner, airs live on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 2 and UFC Fight Pass.

Dolce said Hendricks was 174 pounds on that Thursday night at the local gym. He said the scale, a Tanita brand device which the fighter “travels the world with in a very secure lockbox,” was working fine earlier today when Hendricks checked his weight.

But as the day progressed, he said, its readings grew more inconsistent.

“At one point, he was 171.8 (pounds) before he went into the bathtub, and we did a 20-minute in the bathtub, where we’ll lose [sixth-tenths of a pound] to a pound in that time,” Dolce said. “I’m sitting with him, and he’s sweating profusely. We go back and we step on, and it says he gained [two-tenths of an ounce] in that session. That was when he said, ‘F–k. This scale is off.’ That was probably going to be our last one or two sessions of the day.”

To complicate matters, Dolce said, the entire weight-cutting process was delayed so Hendricks could attend a 2 p.m. “medical meeting” that changed their planned schedule.

And when they went to check weight on a UFC’s scale at the fighter hotel that is identically calibrated to the one used at official weigh-ins, Dolce said the promotion had packed it up.

“So we knew Johny was going to be close,” said Dolce, who’s worked with Hendricks as a consultant for his past six UFC fights. “I felt that he would have and could have been on. In looking at the scale, it was 170.5. The commissioner said 171.5. I don’t know how correct that was; maybe my angle was bad or theirs was. But there’s no doubt that Johny was going to make weight.”

Hendricks did make weight, losing one-and-a-half pounds from the initial 171.5 mark announced by the commission, which triggered a two-hour timeline for the fighter to make weight.

Had he not been 170 pounds, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which is overseeing Saturday’s pay-per-view event, mandated that Lawler (22-9 MMA, 7-3 UFC) would be eligible to win the vacant UFC welterweight belt while Hendricks (15-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) would be considered a non-title combatant.

Hendricks’ team was ecstatic when the commission announced he was 170 pounds, and Hendricks, who noticeably shook during his initial try, looked relieved.

In the two hours preceding the weigh-ins, Dolce said Hendricks didn’t hit the nearest sauna, but merely went out to the parking lot at the weigh-in venue and did calisthenics for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating between two minutes of activity and two minutes of rest.

“He was able to break a sweat pretty quickly, and we knew he would lose that weight,” Dolce said. “It was easy. If he had to make 165 (pounds), he would have made 165. It was just about making the contracted weight and not going into deficit by overcutting because of anxiety.

“He was shaking because he was at very low levels of body fat, (with) very low levels of water running through his system, and it was freezing cold in the venue. That’s why. You’ve got to think, a man standing naked in front of 3,000 people, there’s nerves, there’s anxiety, and he just got done cutting weight. He had the lowest amount of body fat that he had in a year.

“You get a little chilly sometimes.”

The natural question now is whether the weight scare will have an effect on Hendricks, who recently told MMAjunkie that he walks around at 220 pounds and would welcome a future move to the middleweight division.

Dolce, who’s naturally confident his client will rebound, said Hendricks rehydrated after weigh-ins with a mixture of sea salt, honey, lemon juice and water. When he spoke to MMAjunkie, he was on his way to drop off a bowl of gluten-free pasta with vegetables.

“We’ll just keep him going through the night,” Dolce said. “Just like it’s a hard sparring day. That’s the way we treat this.”

For the latest on UFC 171, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Johny Hendricks)