UFC 207's Neil Magny says past mistakes have him prepared for ex-champ Johny Hendricks

DENVER – Neil Magny has been in a position to need to rebound before, and he came through with flying colors.

Next week, he’s in that spot again – and confident he’s going to go on another run. But for the first time, he’ll have to do it against a former UFC champion.

In UFC 207’s featured prelim, Magny (18-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) will fight former welterweight champ Johny Hendricks (17-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC). Magny is a slight favorite in the fight despite coming off an upset knockout loss to Lorenz Larkin at UFC 202 in August.

In early 2014, Magny needed to rebound from back-to-back losses or risk getting bounced out of the UFC. He responded with a seven-fight winning streak that earned him a shot at Demian Maia. He lost that fight by submission, but went on to his three biggest wins to date: Erick Silva, Kelvin Gastelum and Hector Lombard.

But Larkin derailed that three-fight run, and now Magny has to start again when he meets Hendricks. He said he learned from his mistakes against Maia, and learned from the mistakes in the Larkin fight, as well.

MMAjunkie recently caught up with Magny at his home Elevation Fight Team training base at the MusclePharm gym in Denver to talk about his fight against Hendricks and his career so far. Check out the video interview above.

Then don’t miss his fight against Hendricks at UFC 207, which takes place Friday, Dec. 30, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

And for more on UFC 207, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.