While the final decision will ultimately be up to Benson Henderson himself, Bellator MMA President Scott Coker made it clear that he has no problem with :”Smooth” Henderson remaining a 170-pound fighter under the Bellator umbrella if that’s what he cho…
While the final decision will ultimately be up to Benson Henderson himself, Bellator MMA President Scott Coker made it clear that he has no problem with :”Smooth” Henderson remaining a 170-pound fighter under the Bellator umbrella if that’s what he chooses to do after his crushing defeat in his promotional debut this past Friday evening.
Henderson was beaten down in a one-sided fight against Bellator 170-pound champion Andrei Koreshkov this past Friday night at the Bellator 153 event at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, a show that aired live on Spike TV.
After the event, Coker took part in a media scrum and discussed his thoughts on the Henderson-Koreshkov fight, as well as what’s next for the former UFC Lightweight Champion.
Regarding the fight itself, Coker said it was clear that Henderson was on the wrong side of a one-sided fight.
“It was a tough fight man. Benson took a lot of shots. Even from the very beginning he looked like he was a foot shorter than Koreshkov. Koreshkov is no joke, man. He’s got a lot of power, and everything is hard. He hits hard with every shot. You saw the fight, it was clearly one-sided. So we’ll see what Benson wants to do next.”
As far as the decision to fight a 170-pound champion in his debut, despite the fact that he spent the majority of his career at 155-pounds, the same weight class he won a world title at in the UFC, Coker claimed it was Henderson’s choice.
“That was really his choice. He wanted to fight at 170, so we said fine. But he wanted to fight Koreshkov. Now I think he’s going to get together with his coach and see what’s probably best for his next step. Can he fight guys at 170? Yeah, but Koreshkov’s just a big man. He’s super-strong and he hits hard. I’m not sure what Benson could have done differently. He took a lot of shots and he didn’t have an answer for any of the offensive weapons that Koreshkov had.”
While Coker made it clear that Benson can remain at 170 pounds if he would like to, he did share his belief that he would probably have better success if he were to fight at 155 pounds again.
“A fight’s a fight, anything can happen. You could see his punches were short all-night long. And that reach that Koreshkov has, I don’t think he had an answer for that. I think Benson really had a lot of his better fights at 155, but that’s really is choice.”
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Scott Coker quotes.
On Friday, April 22, 2016, Bellator MMA held their Bellator 153 event, which featured the promotional debut of former UFC Lightweight Champion and world-ranked 170-pound contender Benson Henderson.
In the evening’s main event, “Smooth” Henderson mak…
On Friday, April 22, 2016, Bellator MMA held their Bellator 153 event, which featured the promotional debut of former UFC Lightweight Champion and world-ranked 170-pound contender Benson Henderson.
In the evening’s main event, “Smooth” Henderson makes his Bellator debut, as he gets an immediate shot at the Bellator Welterweight Champion Andrei Koreshkov. Also on the card is fan-favorite Michael “Venom” Page (aka “M.V.P.”) vs. Jeremie Holloway, Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Henry Corrales, Brennan Ward vs. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos and Brent Primus vs. Gleristone Santos.
Bellator 153: Henderson vs. Koreshkov took place live from the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. Below are quick-match results of the entire event.
Bellator 153 Preliminary Card Results
Mike Zichelle vs. Joe Cronin (In Progress Now …)
Chris Honeycutt def. Matt Secor via unanimous decision (30-25, 30-27, 30-27)
Djamil Chan def. Richard Patishnock via KO (strike) at 3:09 of round 1
STILL TO COME …
Bellator 153 Preliminary Card
Sam Watford vs. Dean Hancock
Chris Foster vs. Vovka Clay
Matt Bessette vs. Keith Richardson
Tim Caron vs. Justin Sumter
Blair Tugman vs. Jay Perrin
Bellator 153 Main Card
Andrey Koreshkov (c) vs. Benson Henderson
Patricio Freire vs. Henry Corrales
Brennan Ward vs. Evangelista Santos
Michael Page vs. Jeremie Holloway
Brent Primus vs. Gleristone Santos
The event was one of Bellator’s better ones. We’ve recapped the entire card for you (and threw in some GIFs–which are all courtesy of Zombie Prophet/Fansided):
The Bellator 122 prelims were packed with action. Saad Awad pulled off one of the best TKOs from the bottom in recent memory against Joe Duarte. After getting blasted with a right hand, Awad crumbled to the mat. However, Duarte got over aggressive and Awad snagged him in a triangle. The ref called the fight about a billion elbows to Duarte’s temple later. Check out the GIF.
Other significant prelim happenings: The unheralded Fernando Gonzalez upset Bellator mainstay Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision. Gonzalez was simply quicker and better conditioned. One has to wonder about Amoussou’s future in Bellator.
Bellator put a light heavyweight tournament semifinal on the prelims. Kelly Anundson took on Luiz Philipe Lins, but the fight didn’t last long. Lins collapsed to the canvas a few minutes into the first round with a knee injury. Anundson was therefore awarded with a TKO victory.
More prelim action: Wrestling standout Bubba Jenkins steamrolled over Poppies Martinez, taking him down and scoring a TKO via ground and pound (GIF) in the first frame.
Get the rundown of the main card–plus the precious GIFs–after the jump.
The event was one of Bellator’s better ones. We’ve recapped the entire card for you (and threw in some GIFs–which are all courtesy of Zombie Prophet/Fansided):
The Bellator 122 prelims were packed with action. Saad Awad pulled off one of the best TKOs from the bottom in recent memory against Joe Duarte. After getting blasted with a right hand, Awad crumbled to the mat. However, Duarte got over aggressive and Awad snagged him in a triangle. The ref called the fight about a billion elbows to Duarte’s temple later. Check out the GIF.
Other significant prelim happenings: The unheralded Fernando Gonzalez upset Bellator mainstay Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision. Gonzalez was simply quicker and better conditioned. One has to wonder about Amoussou’s future in Bellator.
Bellator put a light heavyweight tournament semifinal on the prelims. Kelly Anundson took on Luiz Philipe Lins, but the fight didn’t last long. Lins collapsed to the canvas a few minutes into the first round with a knee injury. Anundson was therefore awarded with a TKO victory.
More prelim action: Wrestling standout Bubba Jenkins steamrolled over Poppies Martinez, taking him down and scoring a TKO via ground and pound (GIF) in the first frame.
The main card started with what was the true main event of the night (for us at least): PHIL BARONI VS. KARO PARISYAN. Unfortunately, it didn’t really live up to our expectations. Baroni came out completely flat. As soon as Parisyan turned up the “heat” [Editor’s note: We’re so sorry. The intern who came up with that line has been let go], Baroni became a deer in the headlights…then a dead deer on the hood of a car. The end was particularly brutal as he was finished while sitting in Indian style (GIF), just absorbing punches to the head in a total stupor. We really, REALLY hope he retires at this point.
Next up came highly touted British Prospect Liam McGeary vs. Egidijus Valavicius in the next light heavyweight tournament semifinal. McGeary kicked Valavicius to the curb. After taking a handful of punches, McGeary clinched Valavicius. A minute or two later, a flurry of lethal knees and uppercuts (GIF) from McGeary ended the fight; Valavicius was out on his feet. McGeary will face Kelly Anundson in the finals of the light heavyweight tournament.
In the co-main event, Brett Cooper met Brandon Halsey in the middleweight tournament final. Halsey controlled the bout during the minute or two that it lasted. Halsey clinched Cooper, took him down, and then arm barred him (GIF). It almost resembled a Ronda Rousey fight in that aspect.
The co-main event saw Andrey Koreshkov face Adam McDonough in the welterweight tournament semifinal. It was domination from bell to bell. Koreshkov landed an array of strikes (included a wicked spinning back kick) that kept McDonough puzzled throughout the fight. Koreshkov was too fast, too accurate, and his sprawls were too powerful for McDonough, a wrestler with anemic striking, to mount anything resembling an offense. It was a strong performance for Koreshkov, who earned a title shot with the win. It was a strong performance for Bellator, too. The fight card was energetic, fun, and left us with that “let’s shadow box with our shirts off” feeling.
Here are the complete results:
Main Card:
Andrey Koreshkov def. Adam McDonough via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Brandon Halsey def. Brett Cooper via submission (armbar), Round 1, 2:09
Liam McGeary def. Egidijus Valavicius via TKO (strikes), Round 1, 2:10
Karo Parisyan def. Phil Baroni via knockout (punches), Round 1, 2:06
Preliminary Card:
Augusto Sakai def. Matt Frembling via TKO (strikes), Round 3, 3:32
Bubba Jenkins def. Poppies Martinez via TKO (punches), Round 1, 4:10
Kelly Anundson def. Philipe Lins via TKO (injury), Round 1, 1:40
Fernando Gonzalez def. Karl Amoussou via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Saad Awad def. Joe Duarte via TKO (elbows) – Round 1, 1:18
Sergio Rios def. Stephen Martinez via TKO (head kick, punches), Round 2, 0:20
Linton Vassell def. Virgil Zwicker via submission (rear-naked choke), Round 1, 1:07
