Lightweight fights for respect
Benson Henderson will do his talking inside the UFC ring
Benson Henderson sat and waited. And waited.
BJ Penn was asked about his one-year vacation. Dana White was questioned about an Anderson Silva-Georges St-Pierre dream fight potentially taking place in Dallas. Fox Sports president Eric Shanks was asked about network plans for UFC. Nate Diaz was questioned about his teammates. Mauricio Rua answered a query about Jon Jones.
AndHendersonwaited.The lightweight star, who puts his title on the line against Nate Diaz in the main event of Saturday’s national broadcast of UFC on FOX, messed around on Twitter. He tweeted fans, tweeted his publicist, tweeted what the other fighters on the media conference call were saying, even.
By the time an hour-long call had concluded, the greatest 155-pound fighter on the planet had been asked two questions. Humorously, one of the questions was, what does he need to do to get some attention around here?
“I don’t think I really need to do a whole lot. I need to continue doing what I’m doing,” said Henderson (16-2).
“It’s all a process. Life is a process. You want to raise good kids, but it doesn’t happen in one day. You want to be a great fighter, it doesn’t happen overnight.
“You got to lay the groundwork, stay on that grind, stay at it and then eventually you get those big huge national deals with national TV stations that are seen worldwide. … Eventually if I keep on winning and keep putting the work in, then everything else falls in to place.”
The former World Extreme Cagefighting lightweight titleholder is 5-0 since 2011, winning two fight-of-the-night bonus awards, plus beating champion Frankie Edgar in February and then again in August in the rematch.
He’s made no secret of his goal to match Anderson Silva’s all-time UFC winning streak of 16.
“If I do want to be one of the great lightweights of all time, I have huge shoes to fill,” said Henderson.
“And I’m excited to get that chance.”
With a combination of elite boxing skills and worldclass jiu jitsu, Diaz (16-7) pre- sents a big challenge. Since moving back down from the 170-pound division, Diaz has gone 3-0, in those matches winning submission of the night bonuses twice and a fight of the night bonus in the
BENSON HENDERSON
third contest. “Nate Diaz is tough. He’s darn tough,” said Henderson.
“I’m going to go out there and do my best and try to get my hand raised any way possible.”
Diaz, whose brother Nick is in the mix for a shot at welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre next year, spends every day around champions. Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields and brother Nick have each held titles in major organizations.
“I don’t know, maybe it’s my turn with something like that,” Diaz said.
“It’s a big fight. It’s important. There’s a belt. So it’s pretty much the biggest thing going on right now.”
In other broadcast matches at UFC on Fox 5:
Auricio (Shogun) Rua (21-6) meets Alexander Gustafsson (14-1) in a light heavyweight bout that could determine the next challenger to the title currently held by Jon Jones.
“I think this is a fight that every fan wants to see because both (of us) look for the knockout,” said Rua. “We are strikers. I think the fans will have a wonderful show.”
Kelowna, B.C. native Rory MacDonald (13-1) faces off against former lightweight and welterweight champion BJ Penn (16-8-2).
Mike Swick (15-4) squares off against Matt Brown (1711) in a welterweight match.
“If I do want to be one of the great lightweights of all time, I have huge shoes to fill.”