Tag: benson henderson

If UFC lightweight contender Benson Henderson were to be cast in a movie, Smooth would undoubtedly star in a suspense film. And like any good suspense film, Henderson likes taking his time. 

The former lightweight champion, who’s notorious for piling up close-decision wins, was burned by the judges in his uneventful trilogy fight with Donald Cerrone at UFC Fight Night: Boston. It marked just the second time Henderson lost via decision in his mixed martial arts career.

Though he wasn’t particularly sour in his post-fight interview, the fighter from the MMA Lab had every right to be. Henderson acted as the aggressor for much of the pair’s co-main event spot, winning the striking battle by a wide margin. 

Henderson’s game plan of targeting the legs and body of the prolific kickboxer was a key throughout his 15-minute tussle with Cerrone. Not to mention, Henderson stuffed six “Cowboy” takedowns.

Cerrone, though, would ultimately prevail off the strength of his two takedowns and, perhaps, his soaring popularity. 

The loss stings just a bit more than normal because it’s the first time Smooth has lost back-to-back fights in his career. Rather than anguishing on the sideline, he’s choosing to stay busy, like his pal Cowboy. 

Bendo will be foregoing an April fight with Jorge Masvidal to headline an injury-plagued UFC Fight Night 60 card in his home state of Colorado against Brandon Thatch. 

With a change in opponent also comes a change in weight class. The 31-year-old Henderson will move up to 170-pounds to meet the “Rukus.”

No one can blame him for dusting his boots off to get back on the proverbial MMA grind. Henderson is a large lightweight and has spoken candidly about a move up. 

In March 2013, when Bendo was still champ, he unceremoniously called out the greatest UFC welterweight in history, Georges St-Pierre. 

Like St-Pierre, Henderson has been branded as a fighter that’s not all that compelling in the cage. 

“In the UFC, they want fights to be exciting. They want knockouts, they want submissions,” Henderson told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole in December 2012. “But at the same time, you have to be smart about it. You have to get your hand raised and get the W.”

Smooth has a lot of ‘Ws’. He has tallied nine Octagon wins, compared to three losses. If you take his wins in World Extreme Cagefighting into account, that number rises to 14.

For a four-year period, from January 2009 to August 2013, the Colorado native was only stopped by current lightweight champion Anthony Pettis. He also defeated some noteworthy lightweight champions, Frankie Edgar (twice) and Gilbert Melendez (Strikeforce), in that span. 

Those wins came at the peak of Bendo‘s career. They also happened to be the most controversial. 

The Melendez and Edgar fights were as close on the scorecards as they appeared on television. Several MMA outlets scored Henderson’s second fight with Edgar at UFC 150 in favor of the latter. 

But Henderson hasn’t only been a target for MMA pundits; his boss has also been his biggest critic. Following his back-and-forth split-decision victory over Josh Thomson in January 2014, UFC president Dana White remarked, per Steven Marrocco of MMAJunkie, that “this is the typical Ben Henderson fight.”

Even then, Henderson didn’t complain. Over time, though, his guard eroded. 

His title loss against Pettis, and the shots thrown by White, resulted in this tirade following Bendo‘s first UFC finish against Rustam Khabilov in June. 

“Getting the ‘W’ is the same as all the other ‘Ws,’” said Henderson at the UFC Fight Night 42 post-fight presser. “I’m just after good performances, whether it’s a submission or its a knockout, sometimes you guys in the media don’t understand what it is to win.”

Henderson is right. To see a fight through the eyes of the fighter taking the blows in the cage is something entirely different.

However, if he wants to earn some respect, Smooth should rip a page out of the book of humility. Since relinquishing his title to Pettis, Henderson has gone on to achieve a 2-2 record. 

The most devastating loss of his career came at the hands of current No. 1 contender Rafael dos Anjos. Rather than take the high road, Bendo threw dirt on the Brazilians’ first-round knockout victory, calling it “a flash knockout.”

While the end result of the fight may have been controversial, he could’ve at least recognized his opponent’s power. Maybe even tip his cap to the better man.

After all it’s Henderson that has been given the benefit of the doubt several times before. And whether he wins or loses, controversy still manages to rear its ugly head every time he steps into the Octagon. 

Henderson has a job to do. He does it quite well and is one of the most successful in the division at his craft. 

And admittedly, as Bleacher Report’s Chad Dundas pointed out, “there are worse roles to have in the UFC’s most crowded and competitive division.”

Though, he hasn’t done much to change his stock in it. He didn’t try to lay a whipping on the Cowboy.

Perhaps, his breakthrough showing hasn’t come yet because of just how stiff his competition was. Edgar, Melendez, Thomson and Cerrone have all been finished a combined four times in their careers.

The welterweight division isn’t going to be a cakewalk either for Henderson and it begins February 14. However, we just might have to wait for the bout verse Thatch to play out to gauge Smooth’s interest in staying at 170 pounds.

“I would say it’s just a pit-stop for right now. I wouldn’t say that I’m going to stay at 170, just more or less flirting with the idea and seeing how it goes from here,” Henderson told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.

Whether or not Henderson will compete for another title remains to be seen. It’s possible his time has already come.

If he stays complacent in his fight strategy, though, it’s going to be rough sledding for the former UFC/WEC champion.

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The “oversaturation” of UFC events has been a hot topic over the last 12 months. 

That’s valid, of course. Hardcore fan status requires the sacrifice of nearly 40 weekends a year these days. What do you get in return for that? Should-be-regional-level fighters you’ve never heard of wheezing their way to a decision.

UFC Fight Night 60, set to go down Saturday, represents a new low for the fans. While mediocre events have become the UFC’s standard and outright bad cards have become increasingly common, none have been as devoid of intrigue as Fight Night 60.

The main event features a welterweight bout between two-fight UFC veteran Brandon Thatch and former lightweight champion Benson Henderson. Thatch is neither a must-see prospect nor a fighter who enters the UFC as an already-proven contender. Henderson will enter the cage on a two-fight skid for a one-and-done bout outside his preferred weight class.

Outside of the main event, only two fighters of note appear on the main card in 2014 Fighter of the Year candidates Neil Magny and Max Holloway. While the two combined for a 9-0 record last year, neither man can be labeled a star, and neither man can be labeled a contender. 

The best pound-for-pound fight on the card? Probably the matchup between fringe top-10 flyweights Zach Makovsky and Tim Elliott. 

The most optimistic UFC fan would have trouble getting excited for this card. The casual fans, in all likelihood, won’t think twice before skipping this event.

And you know what? That’s a good thing.

The UFC’s ballooning schedule is an issue, but those growing pains are not as much of a problem as how the UFC has handled them. Don DeLillo, in his criminally overrated novel White Noise, posed the question, “Is it better to commit evil and attempt to balance it with an exalted act than to live a resolutely neutral life?” The UFC has, more or less, opted for the latter.

Pay-per-views barely stand apart from UFC on Fox events, which may or may not be better than any given Fight Night. Few cards, and fewer fighters, demand to be seen in the hectic shuffle that is the UFC today. UFC events are no longer really events. They are, by and large, a simple part of almost any given weekend.

Intrigue has, more or less, been spread evenly across all its cards in a fight business where standing out is critical to success. That is not the case in other sports, mind you. A game between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees will always catch the eye of fans loyal to either team. A boxing match with Floyd Mayweather still stands out—even with ESPN, HBO and Showtime combining for a daunting amount of pugilistic content.

The UFC traditionally achieves those high highs with “stacked cards.” A compelling main event. A blue-chip co-main event. Various other bouts with either profound importance to the title picture, an interesting story or good ol’ fashioned bad blood. While those sorts of fights still exist, they rarely find themselves consolidated onto one card and are typically each individually tasked to carry an otherwise unimpressive event.

This approach was directly responsible for the UFC’s atrocious third quarter of 2014, where UFC 176 was cancelled, UFC 177 was infamously awful and UFC 178 seriously underachieved in terms of buyrates, according to numbers from Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via MMAPayout.com). While many interesting fights, like Roy Nelson vs. Mark Hunt, Ronaldo Souza vs. Gegard Mousasi and Jorge Masvidal vs. Daron Cruickshank, occurred during that time, they were scattered across so many cards that the decently high highs did not make up for the chasmy lows.

Heck, imagine if UFC 177 absorbed just one or two fights from the Fight Night cards that popped up immediately after. Putting bouts like Joe Lauzon vs. Michael Chiesa, Andrei Arlovski vs. Antonio Silva and Myles Jury vs. Takanori Gomi alongside existing the existing main event of T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao 2 (which, of course, became Dillashaw vs. Joe Soto) would have actually kept it on par with other pay-per-views.

And that brings us back to Fight Night 60.

Benson Henderson vs. Brandon Thatch was not always the main event for UFC Fight Night 60. Its original headline was a welterweight tilt between fan favorite Matt Brown and former Strikeforce champion Tarec Saffiedine.

When Saffiedine pulled his groin and was forced to withdraw from the fight, Brown was pulled off the card entirely. He was then moved to UFC 185 to face Johny Hendricks, a play by the UFC that pushed the card to near must-see status. Fight Night 60 might be a new low for UFC Fight Nights, but at least this time, its weakness directly translates into a stronger UFC 185.

That is a welcome change. Few people watch every single UFC event anymore if they don’t have to. Frankly, the UFC is doing its fans a solid by making it easier to pick and choose which cards to watch.

That’s a good thing, and it is something that the UFC should continue. 

If the UFC wants to bounce back from its awful 2014, and if it expects its American and Canadian fans to continue footing the bills for its international expansion efforts, rewarding fans for their continued interest in the sport with great pay-per-views is an absolute must.

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Brandon Thatch’s name may be relatively new to the UFC stage, but that doesn’t mean there is anything untested about him.

The Colorado-based smashing machine hovered in obscurity for the past few years as one of the best fighters fans had yet to hear of, but that’s a status he’s changing one violent finish at a time.

The welterweight knockout artist put a thunderous stamp on his Octagon debut by dusting Justin Edwards at Fight Night 27 and then crumpled seasoned veteran Paulo Thiago with vicious knees three months later in the Brazilian’s native country.

Both were first-round finishes and brought Thatch’s running total to 11 victories without seeing the second round. Simply put: Thatch doesn’t show up to mess around. He’s there to put his opponent away and get on to the next. He doesn’t need much room to capitalize when opportunities are presented, and his aggressive style immediately resonated with a fanbase that is drawn to the ruckus. 

While there may be a slight difference in the spelling (Rukus), Thatch’s connection with the fighting faithful makes a suitable nickname for the promising 170-pound talent. He couldn’t be happier to be competing on the biggest platform in MMA where he can put his versatile striking arsenal on display.

The Denver native will get his biggest showcase to date at Fight Night 60 when he faces former lightweight- champion-turned-welterweight Benson Henderson. 

“I feel very honored that I have such hype behind me and such an amazing following,” Thatch told Bleacher Report. “The fans have been great, and I just want to continue to live up to what is expected out of me. 

“This is a great opportunity for me. Benson is a great athlete, and the better my opponent is, the more things I’m going to have to pull out and the better I’m going to have to fight. It’s going to bring out the best in me.”

The card in Broomfield, Colorado, was originally slated to be headlined with a bout between Matt Brown and Tarec Saffiedine, but the former Strikeforce champion suffered an injury in training and was forced to withdraw. Next, The Immortal was pulled from the card entirely when the UFC scheduled him to face former champion Johny Hendricks at UFC 185 in Dallas on March 14.

This shift bumped the Denver native’s bout with Stephen Thompson up to the main event slot, until Wonderboy also suffered an injury in training and was put on the sidelines just a few weeks out from the event. In a sudden turn, the promotion tapped former 155-pound champion to move up a weight class and face Thatch and suddenly a new main event was formed.

While it was certainly a strange chain of events, Thatch was simply happy he was still going to get to fight.

“Oh, I’m into it,” Thatch said of his new opponent. “I didn’t care who I fought at that point. I could have fought my mother in the backyard. Hopefully I would have won, but I think she would whoop my ass. I was very excited to still have a fight. I was worried my fight was going to get scrapped and was just very grateful Benson stepped up to the plate like he did.”

With his new opponent in place, Thatch could keep his focus on returning from an extended layoff that kept him out of action since defeating Thiago in November 2013. He had notched back-to-back impressive stoppages that put him on the map with the UFC’s fanbase, but an injury kept him on the shelf for all of last year.

Thatch admits it was a difficult thing to endure and a period he’s happy to see come to an end.

It was terrible,” Thatch explained. “I sat on my couch, and I was depressed. Anytime you are not training or doing what you love, it’s going to be hard on you mentally. It was a sickening feeling to be laid-up like that, and I felt like a Border Collie that was stuck in a cage all day.”

Nevertheless, his time on the sidelines will officially come to an end at Fight Night 60 on Feb. 14 against an opponent Thatch is excited to mix it up with. He appreciates the talent Henderson will bring to the Octagon in Colorado, but believes the physical aspects of the matchup—in addition to Denver’s mile-high elevation—will be too much for Smooth to handle.

“Benson is a great athlete,” Thatch said. “I just think my size and length are going to be very difficult for him.

“If he’s not used to it, then absolutely,” he added in regard to elevation being a factor. “It’s a real thing, and those lungs are going to be burning.”

 

Duane Finley is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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Certain things simply do not matter to Benson Henderson.

Where the current landscape of mixed martial arts is filled with fighters who proclaim they will step in against any opponent whenever the opportunity is presented to them, the truth of the matter is that very few fighters actually put forth the actions to back up their claims. Competing at the highest level of MMA is a business plain and simple, yet there are certain athletes who are driven by something outside of the typical scope. 

Alongside his close friend and three-time scrap partner Donald Cerrone, the MMA Lab leader envelops a different mind-set to the fight game in the modern era. Both possess a willingness to fight anyone, anytime, anywhere, and their respective track records reflect this aggressive approach.

Even though Cowboy has put an emphasis on the financial aspect of chasing down and making opportunities, there is still an elevate love for throwing down driving him to make those decisions.

Things are similar but different on Henderson’s side of the equation. The former WEC and UFC lightweight champion is fueled by competition and the chance to push and test his skills at their limits. There is certainly a love for the scrap where Smooth is concerned, but the fight in itself is more about overcoming the obstacle directly in front of him.

“I’ve always been willing to fight anyone at anytime,” Henderson told Bleacher Report. “When you are defending a title it can’t be a short notice fight against any random person. Those fights have to make sense in the bigger picture of a division. But I’ve always been willing to go at anytime—same as Cerrone—and that is what made the WEC so exciting and successful or whatnot. When guys have that mentality you are going to have exciting fights. I’ve been that way for a long time, man.

“I’ve asked the UFC plenty of times over the past few years for anything I could get short notice, and I was always surprised how Cowboy gets these fights. I’ve asked time and time again when there was a situation available. I would see someone get hurt then hit up Dana [White] and Joe Silva to let them know I’m willing to take the fight, and the answer was always no.”

That game mentality is what sparked the Arizona transplant to seek out another booking from UFC matchmaker Joe Silva immediately following his razor-thin decision loss to Cerrone at Fight Night 59 in Boston on Jan. 18.

When the UFC slated him to face Jorge Masvidal at Fight Night 63 on April 4, an injury to Stephen Thompson provided an opening in the main event at Fight Night 60 to face Brandon Thatch in Broomfield, Colorado, on Feb. 14.

Two high-profile fights in less than one month is a turnaround the majority of fighters wouldn’t tackle, but Henderson isn’t like other fighters.

“The competitor in you very much despises a loss and wants to get back in there and get a win back underneath you. That was the thought for getting back in there as soon as possible. Originally, Joe Silva said the earliest they had was April 4 against Jorge Masvidal. I said, ‘Sure. Done. Sign me up.’

“I was already bugging Joe about me taking a short notice fight. I told him 155 would be hard for me to make on short notice. Physically I could do it, but I wouldn’t perform well making that weight on one or two weeks’ notice. But if you have a short notice fight for me at 170, I’m all for it. We’ve been thinking about dabbling at 170 for awhile and seeing how it works out for us, and it just so happened that they needed it. Joe Silva text me last Saturday a few fights before Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz fight, and he wanted to know how serious I was about taking a short notice fight at 170. I told him I’ll take whatever he was offering.

“I’m not one of those guys who just talks the talk,” he added. “I actually back it up. Joe offered up Denver, Colorado, against Brandon Thatch in a main event. I said, ‘Cool. Let’s do it.'”

 

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise. 

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