Fresh off of his five-round split decision victory against Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 79 in Seoul, South Korea, Benson Henderson finds himself with a lot of opportunities in front of him.
Not only is he 2-0 at 170 lbs, but he also completed his UFC contract which brings lots of speculation on whether he will re-sign with the UFC, or if he’ll move to another promotion. With how talented and experienced he is, he would be a massive addition to other promotions like Bellator or World Series of Fighting. And while other promotions might be able to pay him more than the UFC can, the question becomes whether or not Benson Henderson wants to be fighting the best in the world. You can not make the comparison between promotions – the UFC has the most talent, especially at 170 lbs. Whether he stays with the UFC or leaves to a competing organization, there are some very intruiging match ups with Benson Henderson involved.
If he leaves
If Benson Henderson leaves the UFC and joins another promotion, it would most likely be for a short amount of time as “Bendo” stated that he “will be retiring in the UFC.” Benson could enter Bellator and beat the likes of Josh Koscheck, Douglas Lima, and current Bellator welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov, and then re-sign with the UFC in a year or two from now. This would instantly set up a title shot between Henderson and whoever is the champion at the time, and it would be a huge fight. However, this move is risky because if Benson loses to any of the fighters mentioned above, it would drastically cut his stock, and the number of people interested in seeing him return to the UFC would dwindle. If Benson went the WSOF route, I’d like to see how he matches up with their top welterweights: Jon Fitch, Yushin Okami, Rousimar Palhares, and Jake Shields.
If he stays
Things really get interesting if Benson Henderson stays. First off, the UFC likes Benson Henderson because he is what many refer to as a “Company Man”. Not only does he say nice things about the UFC, but he’s one of the go-to guys the UFC calls upon to fill in on short-notice fights. Because of this, I don’t see why the UFC wouldn’t offer Benson Henderson a nice juicy contract to stay with them in hopes that he climbs up the welterweight rankings and initiates some PPV-worthy match ups.
The problem however is that Benson Henderson is not a notable draw. Outside of hardcore MMA fans who appreciate him, he doesn’t garner much hype or interest. Even within the hardcore community, many claim Benson is a boring fighter as 9 of his 11 UFC wins come via decision. The only way the UFC gets a good return on Henderson is if he can climb the welterweight ladder, and get into title contention. Otherwise, we’re going to continue to see Henderson on top of Fight Pass and FOX Sports 1 cards.
With wins over Brandon Thatch and Jorge Masvidal, I’d say he’s right on the verge of the top 5. The UFC has him ranked at #15 which I feel is way too low. I’d put him at #6, between Demian Maia and Matt Brown, and kick Thiago Alves out of the top 15. For his next fight, I would like to see the UFC match him up with Dong Hyun Kim – I find this match up to be particularly interesting considering how good of grapplers they both are. Other interesting opponents would be the winner of Gunnar Nelson and Demian Maia, Stephen Thompson, or even Neil Magny. As long as Henderson squares off with a top 10 fighter, a win would put him right up there for title contention. Only time will tell what decision Henderson makes – I would personally like to see him stay being how close he is to the very elite in the UFC’s welterweight division.
