Opportunity to fight ex-champ Johny Hendricks may be a little late, but Neil Magny will take it

LAS VEGAS – If Neil Magny has learned anything in his UFC career, it’s to avoid jumping to conclusions.

In his previous outing at UFC 202, he figured he’d smother the striker Lorenz Larkin for three rounds. Instead, he struggled to get a takedown and wound up getting stopped in the second round.

Thirteen months ago at UFC Fight Night 78, he thought Kelvin Gastelum would struggle to make weight and run out of gas in later. Instead, he tired in deep waters and squeaked out a split call.

Heading into a pivotal fight with ex-champ Johny Hendricks at Friday’s UFC 207, Magny is conscious about not making the same mistake thrice.

“The biggest thing is not remaining complacent,” Magny (18-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) told MMAjunkie at a media day in support of his FS1-televised fight in advance of the pay-per-view card at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “I’m looking forward to not making that same mistake again. I’m just focused on fighting the best version of him out there.”

There’s no more obvious example of that than the Hendricks (17-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) of two years ago at UFC 171, when he defeated Robbie Lawler to win the welterweight title left vacant by Georges St-Pierre, an icon many believe he beat in his previous outing at UFC 167.

Since losing the belt to Lawler in an immediate rematch at UFC 181, Hendricks, the No. 8 fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA welterweight rankings, has struggled more with weight and consistency, creating ready-made questions of which version of the ex-champ will show up. No. 13 ranked Magny was denied the chance to test himself arguably at the apex of his career. The weight struggles continued for Hendricks heading into the bout because he missed weight again. The upside for Magny is the addition of 20 percent of Hendricks’ purse.

The opportunity might be coming a little late. But he would benefit the most from the best Hendricks.

“This is a fight I’ve been chasing for a while,” he said. “I was on a seven-fight win streak, begging for this fight. I was on a three-fight win streak, begging for this fight. So it was kind of surprising I got it off a loss, but I was 100 percent excited when I got the call to fight him.”

Check out the above video, and for more on UFC 207, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.