The UFC returns to Fox on Saturday night with a familiar name: former lightweight champion Benson Henderson, who has made three appearances on the network fight cards since they began in 2011. Of course, his first was an untelevised bout against Clay Guida, but that was an important one all the same; it’s the fight that secured his title shot against Frankie Edgar.
You know the rest of the story. Henderson would beat Edgar, then beat him again, then beat Nathan Diaz and Gilbert Melendez and still never receive the respect he deserved. This is likely because, with the exception of beating the brakes off Diaz, Henderson’s bouts were all close. And then, when the title reign came to an end, it came at the hands of the man who ended his World Extreme Cagefighting run in glorious fashion: Anthony Pettis.
So this is Henderson’s rebound fight, and it’s a tough out. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
As always, any numbers you find in my betting preview are generously provided by Reed Kuhn from Fightnomics.
Let’s get this preview train rolling.