On the Mount Rushmore of MMA facial hair, Johny Hendricks' fluffy cheek-warmers have undoubtably earned their spot opposite the all-time greats.
But could even the manliest of beards lighten the blow of a perfectly timed counter-right? Don't count on it, say Hendricks.
Hendricks dispelled the facial hair myth on a recent edition of Sherdog's "The Savage Dog Show." Said the fighter:
"I don't think it does anything. I really don't. I've been hit without a beard and I've been hit with a beard. My first four or five fights, I really didn't have that good of a beard. I didn't have one at all for my first three fights and I got hit. It doesn't matter. Four-ounce gloves, it hurts no matter which way you look at it. Now if these were 18-ounce gloves and you've got a beard and you fluff it out and somehow it makes it thicker where [a strike] doesn't even touch your jaw, then that's a different story. But as of yet, anybody who's hit me, it still hurt. It hurts like hell. I'm not going to lie."
Photo by Ester Lin via MMAFighting.com