Joe Hendry Recalls Calling Out UFC’s Robert Whittaker For Freestyle Wrestling

Joe Hendry called out Robert Whittaker in when they were both competing in the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and he recently looked back at the matter. The two were both set to compete in the freestyle wrestling competition at the games, though Whittaker was forced to withdraw due to the UFC being worried about a potential injury.

Hendry talked about the situation in an interview with Fightful and was asked about a potential fight in the UFC with Whittaker.

“Not in the UFC,” Hendry said. “Hell no. I was calling him out for amateur wrestling. I ended up facing Australia in the first round. If Robert Whittaker hadn’t pulled out, I would have faced the active UFC champion. I already made my mind up about what I was going to do because he’s just better than me. He’s going to run through me.”

He continued, “So what I was going to do is literally give him the Goldberg spear to the single leg, shoot wildly for this takedown, and do something mad right off the bat, and do something crazy. That was my strategy. In my head, I was like, ‘there is no shame in getting beat by the UFC champion.’”

Hendry made it to the round of 16 before losing to Nicolaas Verreynne of Australia.