Benson Henderson is arguably the most important fighter to leave the UFC to Bellator. A former WEC and UFC lightweight champion that’s 2-0 at welterweight and still in his prime joining the competition is a huge deal, as it lays to rest any fan-arguments about quality of competition between the two promotions. While Bendo may be the most important fighter to leave the UFC in recent memory, he’s joined a growing number of fighters finding that the grass might be greener on Spike.
We spoke to him about leaving the UFC, the differences between Bellator and the UFC, and his toothpick which seemingly never leaves his mouth.
I was in the media room in Milwaukee at Hardy vs. Lytle back in 2011 with you and Donald Cerrone claiming the WEC guys were taking over. We saw how strong the WEC was, and now ex-Strikeforce fighters are at the top of almost every division in the UFC. Is Bellator getting a bad rap as a second-tier organization? Will the fighters there one day take over the industry like Strikeforce and WEC?
Ah, that’s cool. Yeah, it’s always the same kind of thing as far as organization and people wondering, “Oh, how’s this stack up, how’s that up?” We’re all fighters, we train together, doesn’t matter what organization you fight for. We all train together. You train with UFC fighters, train with Strikeforce fighters, WEC fighters, Bellator fighters, doesn’t matter. So we all know how tough we are. The reporters, the other people, the fans, they don’t understand. “Oh, this organization, that organization.” No, we all train together, we all know how tough everybody is.
I read an interesting piece on the exodus of fighters that you were quoted in, and Matt Mitrione was talking about how the UFC promotes itself and not the fighters. Is that why you think you have a better opportunity in Bellator?
No, I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that. I think the UFC does a good job of promoting the fighters. They promoted me pretty well. It would behoove them to promote the fighters. They should promote more fighters than the chosen few. Different type of fighters. But they’re a business, they can chose who they promote however they want to. But of the type of individual they choose to promote, they choose to promote more a solid upstanding citizen than other types. I think they’ve done a good job, obviously, when they promote you they promote their own brand and the more they promote you the more they promote themselves. The more you promote yourself, the more the UFC promotes the organization, all that sort of stuff.
So, I don’t have a complaint with the UFC as far as promoting the fighters or promoting themselves. Not that, more like who they chose to promote perhaps, or the type of individual that they promote. Let’s say, like, solid, stand-up guys, lots of them in the UFC, good guys, stand-up guys. Not, you know, loud-mouthed, brash, arrogant, and cocky. They don’t choose to promote the stand-up guys who don’t talk a whole lot, but they can do what they want, it’s their business.
So let’s be clear here — do you think you’re being underrepresented compared to the Conor McGregors of the world?
No, I think there are so many good guys in the UFC. As a fighter, you get to know some guys that butt heads, some guys are this, some guys are that. It is what it is, you know? But there’s just so many good guys that you can chose to promote but then you don’t. There’s so many of them. On any fight card there are 10, 12 good, solid, awesome dudes who are just awesome family guys, good dads, good stand-up quality guys, but they choose to promote maybe two guys instead and those guys are loud or this or that. I think it’s just a numbers game as well.
At this stage of your career, a former WEC champ and former UFC champ, do you feel more pressure than ever before?
I wouldn’t say so exactly. I think I place the most amount of pressure on myself. I put pressure on myself to get my hand raised, period. End of story. Doesn’t matter what story there is or what incidentals there are or this or that. Doesn’t matter. I place the most amount of pressure on myself to get my hand raised, I expect to get my hand raised, I expect to win, I expect to be world champion. That’s what I expect of myself, that’s why I put so much pressure on myself.
Since you’re so intertwined with what’s currently going on at the top of the UFC despite being in a different organization, I’d love to get your thoughts on a few fights. You beat Nate Diaz. What are your thoughts on him beating McGregor?
If you’re gonna sit there and box with them — Nate Diaz, Nick Diaz — they’re pretty good at that. It might be a bad day for you. If you make it a kickboxing fight or if you make it a grappling session, if you kickbox the way Josh Thomson kickboxed Nate Diaz, or out-wrestle, out-grapple him or kick box him out the way I did against Nate Diaz, it might be a better thing for you. Conor, I think, tried to box him, had a pretty a good boxing bout, and Conor landed some good shots, Nate landed some good shots. But you never want to play a guy straight, you never want to do that. If the guy is strong here, don’t go there, go the other way. If the guy’s not strong here, guess what, that’s where I’m personally going to attack. Where they’re not too strong.
Thoughts on Frankie Edgar getting an interim featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo?
Oh, I hadn’t heard that. I think that would be a super fun fight to watch. They’ve faced off before. Jose, I’m a little bit biased, I know him personally, he’s a good guy, I like him a lot. Jose, man, he’s one of the top two fighters on the planet, pound-for-pound, if you ask me. I think it’s gonna be a pretty tough fight. They fought one time, he won’t fight like that again, but I think Frankie won’t make it as much of a stand-up fight this time. Perhaps Frankie will use his wrestling more, he’ll learn from his past mistakes and say maybe we’ll take it to the ground a little bit more. Frankie will be more adamant about taking it to the ground.
How is your relationship with Scott Coker and what are the differences in working with him compared to previous bosses?
I still haven’t met him personally, but I’ve talked to him a bunch of times over the phone now for negotiations and stuff, and everything I’ve heard about him from every other fighter and from the UFC brass, from Dana, from Lorenzo, they had good things to say about Scott Coker. I haven’t heard anybody say a single bad thing against Scott Coker. It’s almost like it’s too good to be true, but you never hear of anybody who has a bad thing to say against Scott Coker as a person. As a businessman, he’s open, transparent, not shifty or shady at all, but he’s open and honest. And when you deal with business people, a lot of times you don’t like dealing with business-minded people because of that reason, and he is not like that at all. He’s completely open, transparent, and honest. I think that says a lot about somebody, especially in this business, in this industry, with how many not open, not transparent, not honest people there are managing and dealing with fighters. He’s a breath of fresh air, man. Great guy to work with.
You have similar viewership on Spike TV compared to FS1, and now you have sponsors back on your shorts, do you think we’ll see more fighters go over and create a stronger competition between Bellator and the UFC?
I think you’re seeing it right now, I think we’re in the beginning this very moment. You’re seeing it with past fighters. It’s here, it’s now, it’s not one year down the road, vying for the top promotion. As far as some guys picking and choosing between organizations, I think you’re already seeing it, you’re already seeing the top fighters on the planet and they are choosing Bellator. They’re seeing the pros of fighting with Bellator.
Bellator has a tough welterweight division, and you aren’t the biggest welterweight despite being undefeated there. Are you ready to make a run?
Yeah, come April 22, I’m getting ready now, same as all my other fights, come April 22 I’ll be 100 percent ready physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally I’ll be as ready as possible. As far as the 170-pound class in Bellator, they’re a bunch of tough guys, a bunch of tough cats, you know? I think that it’ll be on me to use my strengths, my speed, my quickness, my agility, my athleticism. Their strengths are gonna be their size and how strong they are. It’ll be on me to play more to my strengths than playing to their strengths.
When signing with Bellator, did the toothpick come up in negotiations?
Well, it came up, but nothing serious. Scott just asked me if the toothpick thing was true, we talked about it, joked about it a couple times, but no serious discussion about the toothpick, no.
Are you going to have it in when you make your Bellator debut?
I try not to. It’s a bad idea, it’s a bad habit. I’m starting to think of my son and him running out and playing with a toothpick in his mouth and that’s crazy. I’d be so sad, so worried if I saw my son playing outside, running with a toothpick in his mouth. “Take that toothpick out of your mouth, you’re crazy!” So, I’m definitely more aware of that kind of stuff, it’s a bad habit, I probably shouldn’t.
Be honest, do you have one in right now?
Right now, no.
I like to think of Ben Henderson ordering club sandwiches and you taking the toothpick out all “smooth.”
Often, but not right now.
You should make that part of your gimmick, Bellator is giving you more of a voice.
That’s true, they’re giving me more of a voice, but I don’t like, again, speaking of the brashness or the arrogance of some guys, not that it’s fake, I don’t want to be a character, myself. I’m not gonna sell my soul. I’m not gonna do this to get more buys, I’m not gonna do this to get more views, I’m not gonna do this to get more likes. I’m not one of these fighters that’s so brash. First off, I know a lot of them personally, so I know they’re not like that personally, so they do that for the TV, they do that for the camera. If you do that, you strike me as one of those girls on Instagram who take all sorts of pictures just to get a couple of likes. Really, you’re gonna sell your soul for a couple likes? Don’t sell out that cheap, you’re better than that. It’s funny to see that. Yeah, the toothpick is who I am, but I’m not gonna become a caricature of myself for it.
Do you consider it a performance enhancer?
No, my performance enhancer is a man named John Crouch. My performance-enhancing coach.
Can you prove that you’re not Illuminati?
I don’t think I can over the phone, but I’m still confused if that’s a real thing. Are there really clubs and places where people who get together and do that? I don’t think I could prove over the phone, I think that’s a hard thing to prove. But I didn’t even know that was a real thing. I didn’t know it was such a serious thing. If some people are really in it, it strikes me as strange.
That sounds like something the Illuminati would say.