Henderson will look to snap a three-fight losing skid in Bellator’s first event of 2022.
It’ll be another home fight for Benson Henderson for his next Bellator outing.
The former WEC and UFC lightweight champion is set to face Islam Mamedov in the co-main event of Bellator 273 on January 29th in Phoenix, Arizona. Showtime will broadcast the main card, with prelims available for live stream on YouTube and on PlutoTV.
Henderson (28-11) is on the longest losing streak of his career, having dropped three straight. In August of last year he was knocked out by Michael Chandler, then dropped a decision to Jason Jackson at welterweight later that November, and in his lone appearance of 2021 he came up short against Brent Primus at Bellator 268 in Arizona. His last victory was a decision over Myles Jury in 2019, which capped off his four-fight winning run.
Mamedov (20-1-1) is coming off a pretty debatable split decision win over Brent Primus at Bellator 263 in July. The Dagestan native competed in the PFL 2018 and 2019 lightweight tournaments, withdrawing from the 2018 semifinals with an injury and losing a tiebreaker in the 2019 quarterfinals. His only defeat came way back in 2009 to former Bellator contender ‘Tiger’ Sarnavskiy in the regional scene.
Bellator 273 is headlined by a heavyweight title fight between reigning champion Ryan Bader and interim champ Valentin Moldavsky. Other bouts also announced alongside Henderson-Mamedov include Henry Corrales vs. Aiden Lee, Sabah Homasi vs. Jaleel Willis, Romero Cotton vs. Dalton Rosta, Sullivan Cauley vs. Ben Parish, and Saad Awad vs. Chris Gonzalez.