(Sounds like a good plan, but wait until you’re married for a year, and your wife’s all like, “Bensonnnn why do you spend all your time defending your title, what about meeeeeeeee, we never go anywhere anymorrrrrrre.” Ugh. Am I right? Back me up here, married guys. / Photo via MMAFighting)
It seems like one of MMA’s most untouchable records, but Benson Henderson is convinced that he will beat former middleweight champion Anderson Silva‘s consecutive title defense streak of ten.
“I’m going to break it in 2016,” the ever-confident UFC lightweight champion told MMA Fighting.
I should be able to break it by 2015, but because I’m getting married I’m going to take some time off for my honeymoon. That’s going to set me back by about three to four months. But I have it down exactly. I know when I’m going to break it. It’s going to be early 2016. I know what number I need to get. I know the amount of hard work it’s going to take for me to get there. I know how much I’ve got to get beat up, I know how much I’ve got to practice. I’m aware of it. I know it. Now my goal is to go out there and go do it.
Well, alright. We can’t hate on Henderson. The kid has earned what he has, to say the least, and by all accounts works crazy hard. He’s also just a flat-out incredible fighter and looks better each time out.
That said, considering that he has just three consecutive successful title-defenses right now, with an attempt at a fourth coming Saturday at UFC 164, and that two of those bouts were incredibly close — against Frankie Edgar and his last against Gilbert Melendez — predicting ten straight seems a bit outlandish.
It’s not that Henderson isn’t capable of winning seven more straight, it’s just that he’ll probably continue to fight to close decisions a lot considering the parity of the lightweight division. One of these days, the judges might not see things his way; you’re rolling the dice every time you let the scorecards decide the fight, and you can’t always expect the judges to behave rationally.
That said, fighting professionally is pretty irrational itself, and a great deal of confidence (as well as dedication and hard work) is required to step into the cage year after year. If Henderson didn’t believe he could win ten in a row — or fifty, for that matter — he should probably find another line of work.
What do you think, Nation? Is Henderson the guy you would pick as the favorite to break Anderson’s record? If not him, who?
As for his rematch with Anthony Pettis in Milwaukee this Saturday, to whom Henderson lost his WEC title to in 2010, the champ is positive he will use his wrestling to dominate. “St-Pierre says it. If I’m going against somebody, and I know his weakness is this place, yeah, I’m going to exploit it,” he said.
“I’m going to find out every weakness and then go pick on that area.”