Johny Hendricks questions Bas Rutten over WBKFF payment debacle

Former UFC welterweight champ Johny Hendricks was one of many fighters not to get paid by the now defunct bare knuckle fighting promotion WBKFF in late 2018. He’s understandably not happy that he ever got paid for his efforts in the ring.

Furthermore, Hendricks has some questions for former WBKFF president Bas Rutten. Rutten claimed to have no previous knowledge of WBKFF’s sketchy finances, and also claimed that he believed WBKFF founder Tom Stankiewicz would eventually pay the fighters he owed money too.

Johny Hendricks isn’t so sure about that.

“Dude, why didn’t you tell us? He had to have known something,” he told Bloody Elbow‘s Pull No Punches podcast recently (transcript via MMA News). “He had to have. Was he sitting here thinking along the same line as that guy… Why hasn’t he said anything? It sucks, the whole aspect of it.”

Johny Hendricks also had some choice words for Stankiewicz, the man behind this entire ordeal.

“I don’t know what the hell is going on. I was going to back out whenever [Brennan Ward] backed out. Tom calls me giving me all these excuses. He’s telling me all this other bull crap. I said, ‘hey, pay me up front, pay me a check. — that was stupid of me, right — so he writes me a check.

“Next thing I know I come home and he tells me, ‘hey, don’t cash it until Friday.’ I went to cash it and it bounced. At that point I call him up. For three months I’m sitting here trying to figure out what’s going on,” he continued. “At this point if I saw him, I’d be very pissed off. I think he knows not to show his face around and the lawsuit, yes, that’s something I can’t wait for. I’ve thought about hiring my own [lawyer] to go after him. Right now, I’m focused on clearing my head of everything and coaching my fighters.”

What do you think of these comments from Johny Hendricks? Do you understand his frustration with Bas Rutten?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/28/2019.