Playing the game: the free agency gamble by Benson Henderson
Free agency is the buzz in the 2016 MMA world. Several high-profile UFC fighters have jumped ship in hopes of greener pastures. One such notable individual is Benson Henderson who recently signed with Bellator MMA. And, on April 22nd he had his first fight in the Bellator cage. So what can now be said about his decision to part ways with the UFC?
Henderson versus Koreshkov
Many people found Henderson’s debut fight in Bellator rather shocking. He not only lost a lopsided decision to the organization’s welterweight champion but he was not able to secure a single takedown. Some journalists (Luke Thomas) had predicted that there was no chance that Henderson would lose this fight. A couple general conclusions following the fight were that Henderson was largely outsized and that Koreshkov vastly improved his game. Suffice to say, not many saw this result coming.
The good
There are a few ways to interpret this situation: the good, bad, and meh we’ll see. The good is that it helps legitimize the quality of fighters in Bellator and therefore the company’s stock as a MMA promotion. Benson Henderson is a former UFC champion considered to be an elite fighter despite arguably being on the downtrend of his career. If Bellator spins this right, they can keep the conversation going that their top fighters can compete with the UFC’s top fighters; they should book Henderson another fight soon and hope he wins; they should push hard to acquire UFC fighter Rory MacDonald upon entering free agency.
The bad
The bad is that I’m not sure this was how Bellator envisioned this playing out either. If they hoped to build around Henderson’s star power in the welterweight division then that fire has been extinguished. He would prove an interesting mix in their solid talent-filled lightweight division, such as a matchup with Michael Chandler. So, hope remains.
The bad in terms of Henderson’s POV is, well, bad. He was utterly dismantled. His only saving grace is that he looked the size of a lightweight next to the large welterweight build of Koreshkov. If he can chalk this one up as nothing more than a bad idea and drop back down to lightweight, win a string of fights, he might be alright. But who knows, his contract might be so good that financially he’ll be fine for a while. And maybe that was a huge factor in him leaving the UFC, where performance incentives are built into most contracts (show money vs. win money).
Otherwise, his stock has dropped considerably and so has a lot of the buzz. Imagine if he had won the fight, he would’ve had several promising options. First, he would be the new Bellator welterweight champion. Second, there would be the intriguing idea of him attempting to be a two division champ by facing off against lightweight champion Will Brooks. The buzz around Henderson and Bellator would be long-lasting. Instead, Henderson now seems to be going down the similar path of fellow UFC vets like Jon Fitch, Melvin Guillard, and Jake Shields when what he wanted was success similar to that of Phil Davis. Upon leaving the UFC, Phil Davis crushed his debut with two impressive victories in Bellator’s one-night grand prix and who now is scheduled to face King Mo in a title contender bout.
The meh
The meh is that the UFC is still clearly the number one promotion and we’re talking about Bellator here, where Kimbo Slice and Dada 5000 struggled to even breathe, let alone fight one another…It often seems that any Bellator step forward is soon-after met by a step back. The organization just does not seem able to maintain any sort of consistency. Maybe Scott Coker though will be able to turn things around once given enough time.
For Benson Henderson, at 32 years of age and in the infancy of a new contract with Bellator, it largely depends on how much longer he sees himself competing. If he imagined this as his last run and secured a financially favorable contract that isn’t win-dependent, then this situation might not be the worst thing in the world.
