It’s safe to say Benson Henderson isn’t a fan of Chael Sonnen.
The reigning UFC lightweight champ, who is coming off back-to-back wins over former champ Frankie Edgar, hasn’t found much success in winning over the media and fans.
Sonnen, on the other hand, is one of the biggest names in the sport, despite never holding a significant MMA title. He is a PR genius and one of the most talked about fighters in recent memory.
Still, Henderson would rather be true to himself than take a page out of Sonnen‘s book.
In an interview with MMAJunkie, Henderson talked about Sonnen and how self-promotion helped him achieve superstardom.
“He knows it’s a promotional game. He is of average speed, average athletic-wise, white guy, average-looking, and he wrestles guys. He holds guys down – that’s his game. Who wants to see that? That’s not a super-marketable [style]. But as soon as he starts talking, he’s very marketable. And he knows that.”
Henderson comes off as a likeable a guy, who is also a great role model for young fans. He wears his Christianity on his sleeve, which has driven him to give back to his community and use his platform to help influence the younger generation.
Unfortunately, casual MMA fans aren’t following Henderson’s projects outside the cage.
The last couple of UFC events he’s headlined didn’t produce great pay-per-view numbers. He hopes to change that on December 8, when he defends his title against Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 5.
“You have to be entertaining and have a few tricks up your sleeves, [to where people say], ‘Oh wow, what was that? A few entertaining tricks, and hopefully you pull them off.”
Both of Henderson’s bouts against Edgar were incredibly close and entertaining. The bout against Diaz shouldn’t be too far behind.
Even so, it’ll take more than a “few tricks” to pull off Sonnen numbers.
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