Former UFC champion Johny Hendricks and longtime Bellator welterweight Brennan Ward have agreed to meet in a bare-knuckle boxing match later this year.
Both recently retired mixed martial artists have come to terms with the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation. WBKFF vice president Paul Tyler confirmed the news to ESPN on Monday following a report by FightBookMMA.com. Additional details on the event, which is expected to take place on Nov. 9, will be announced shortly.
Hendricks, 35, announced his retirement from MMA in June. As of last week, Ward, 30, had been scheduled to fight at Bellator 207 in October, but he has informed the promotion he wishes to retire from MMA instead.
"I think Brennan was born to be a bare-knuckle fighter," Tyler told ESPN. "You could tell in his last few MMA fights he was just doing it for a paycheck. When he heard about this, he was like a kid on Christmas. He is so happy this sport came to be.
"Johny Hendricks is a dangerous guy, with more than 20 fights in the UFC and WEC. I think the time off he's had has probably served him well. He's fresh and motivated again."
Fighting out of Texas, Hendricks (18-8) bought out his UFC contract last November. He said he views this as a new opportunity to stay in combat sports apart from MMA.
"This sounds fun, not worrying about knees, kicks, elbows, being taken down," Hendricks said. "All you have to do is hit somebody. I still like fighting, it just got to a point in MMA where it was just another day. Everything felt like just another day, but I've always wanted to box. I shocked the world before with my striking in MMA. We'll see if I can do it again."
Hendricks declined to reveal the financial terms of his deal but said it could encompass more than one fight.
"It's definitely enough where I want to go out and prove myself," said Hendricks, on his purse amount. "It's a number where I want to prove what I can do. And I told them, 'If I go out there and have fun with it, I could see myself doing this as a career.'"
Ward (14-6) told ESPN on Monday evening he has secured his release from Bellator MMA, which frees him up to move forward with WBKFF.
"I have to thank [Bellator president] Scott Coker for how it ended," Ward said. "I think he understands I just wasn't into it anymore. Why would you want a guy to fight for you who isn't into it? I'm not going to put on a good show. If I'm telling you I don't want to fight, why keep me around?
"I'm just over MMA. It's too corporate. It's not what I want to do. This bare-knuckle is made for me. I'm going to starch guys in this league. This is my style -- look at me. I'm a brawler. I bang out and smash dudes. I try to hurt people."
Hendricks exited MMA on a 1-5 skid. Ward, of New London, Connecticut, went 0-2 in two appearances in 2017. He has not fought in 2018.
Bare-knuckle boxing has been sending steady waves through the MMA world in 2018. In June, a promotion called Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship staged the first state-sanctioned bare-knuckle boxing event in U.S. history in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and just staged a second event last month in Biloxi, Mississippi. Former UFC strawweight Bec Rawlings appeared on both.
WBKFF has signed former UFC veterans Chris Leben and Phil Baroni, among others. It also signed former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman to a deal last month.