A Rant: Benson Henderson

Nate Diaz loves Benson Henderson as much as I do.

On this blog I try my best to give my most professional opinion from a fan's point of view.  Any writer from Yahoo or ESPN gives you news and their "expert" analysis.  I do not claim to be an expert on any form of sports, nor a master in journalism.  But I am a passionate fan who loves sports and has an opinion on pretty much everything.  As for day 1 of 3 on last Saturday's UFC on Fox 7 card, I am going into a personal rant on why I am sick of the current UFC Lightweight Champion Benson Henderson.  From his fighting down to his personality, he is not what we, the fans, deserve to have as our champion.

Let me first start with his fighting.  I have watched many Ben Henderson fights over the years, his last 11 fights to be exact.  These fights date back all the way to the WEC days.  Just four times in all of those fights did he seem like an invincible champion caliber fighter.  The other seven fights I have seen he barely won very controversial decisions.  I am going to break down all the fights I have seen and give my take on who won on my scorecard.  The four dominant performance for Benson I highlighted in blue while the especially sketchy wins are in red.

• WEC 43: Henderson vs Cerrone for the interim lightweight championship.  This won fight of the year and was an absolutely incredible fight.  Henderson won a 48-47 decision on all three judges scorecards but I feel that Cerrone did enough damage from the bottom with submissions and upkicks to warrant a win.  Henderson showed crazy good submission defense and won the interim belt.
• WEC 46: Henderson vs Varner to unify the interim champ with the actual champ.  I had Varner up two rounds entering the third where  Henderson looked impressive and caught Varner in a standing guillotine choke.
• WEC 48: Henderson vs Cerrone 2 for the belt.  Henderson caught Cerrone in a first round guillotine choke to retain his belt.  This was the most recent fight Henderson finished his opponent. (4-24-10)
• WEC 53: Anthony Pettis defeats Benson Henderson in the last fight in WEC history with the "Showtime Kick" that sealed the 5th round and unanimous decision victory for Pettis.
• UFC 129: Henderson vs Bocek in his UFC debut.  Outwrestled a mediocre fighter for 3 rounds.
• UFC Live: Henderson won a decision over Jim Miller in which he was rocked and in submission danger.  I did score that fight 29-28 Henderson though.
• UFC on Fox 1: Henderson and Guida put on a show in a #1 contender fight that was insane.  Definitely could have gone either way but Henderson won a decision.
• UFC 144: Henderson vs Edgar for the belt in Japan resulted in an upkick stealing the fight.  Henderson won a decision because he took less damage.  Fight statistics showed Edgar landed significantly more strikes and Edgar caught all of Ben's kicks, but Ben did more damage and got a decision.
• UFC 150: Henderson vs Edgar 2 was more controversial than the first.  Henderson won a split decision although after now having seen the fight three times I still score it 48-47 Edgar.
• UFC on Fox 5: Henderson vs Diaz was the first dominant performance Henderson has put on in the UFC but come on, we all know the Diaz brothers can't beat dominant wrestlers.
• UFC on Fox 7: Henderson won a controversial split decision over Gilbert Melendez.  Gil clearly won rounds 1 and 5, plus I gave him round 2.  Apparently two judges thought Henderson won 2, 3 and 4 though.

Now many of you have seen these fights, but if you haven't then take my word for it, they were close and VERY controversial.  Other champions such as Anderson Silva, Jon Jones, and even GSP leave no doubt in who the champ is after a fight.  Silva and Jones are finishers, but GSP wins decisions so decisive that there is no question he is still the champion when the fifth round ends.  Aldo and Barao are others that leave no question at the end of their fights.  So why is it that at the end of every Henderson fight a debate immediately begins?  Because Ben Henderson is not the absolute best at 155, just one of the best.  I am not saying Ben is a bad fighter or he does not deserve title fights.  I am just simply saying he is not dominant and really needs to finish guys before he loses a controversial decision in similar manner to his opponents.  I have even moved Benson up to 7 in my pound for pound rankings last month.  Like I did with DJ after his title defense against Dodson, I am moving Ben down a few ranks after his subpar performance against Melendez.  Gilbert won in my opinion, so Benson is about to slide down a notch because the truly elite pound for pound fighters on the planet finish fights, or are named Georges St. Pierre.

A quick remark on the state of the 155 pound division:

This has widely been considered one of the UFC's deepest division and that is not debated.  With Henderson, Maynard, Melendez, Grant, Pettis, Diaz, Thompson, Miller, Cerrone, Varner, Guillard, Healy, Barboza, Chiesa, Jury, Lauzon, Nurmagomedov, and Trujillo to name a few, this division is stacked with top level talent.  However, most divisions in the UFC have that elite guy that reigns over the division for a number of years.  Silva, Jones, Ortiz, GSP, Hughes, Aldo, and Cruz are examples of this over the years.  The lightweight division has had Pulver, Sherk, Penn, Edgar, and now Henderson as champions.  None of these guys are on the same level as a Jones or even a Tito Ortiz in his day.  Three is the maximum number of title defenses these guys have made.  Henderson is due to lose his next fight if the trend continues and I have a sneaky feeling Gray Maynard will beat Grant and follow it up by winning the belt.  This division is deep but I feel the truly dominant champ has yet to come.  Maybe it will be Aldo when he can no longer make featherweight, stay tuned.

Back to Benson Henderson we go.  I have talked about his past fights and how I do not think he has shown champion caliber dominance.  Let me talk about what I think of him as a person.  He is more of a "Jesus freak" than Tim Tebow when it comes to media time.  He quotes Philippians after each fight, except his last one where he felt it was necessary to propose to his girlfriend on national TV.  His walkout song is "Our God is an Awesome God."  He is so smug when it comes to religion he actually has a tattoo of angel's wings on his back.  I am sorry Ben, but just like Tim Tebow, I am not buying the act.  Nobody that makes a living off fighting is that big of a Jesus lover.  Forget about the religious views of Ben for a second.  He started the controversy of having a toothpick in his mouth last fight against Nate Diaz.  Who do you think you are to put a toothpick in your mouth during a title fight?  You arrogant dummy.  By the way, get a freaking hair cut.  What is going on with your weird hair that is constantly in your eyes?  It looks awful.  This guy just finds a way to get under my skin every time I see his face and someone just NEEDS to put him in his place.  A decision win is not enough, he needs to be knocked out cold.  Maybe a KO will give him some real perspective on life instead of the fantasy world, nobody can touch me because I am the champ attitude he has now.

All of this being said, I have one last thing to say about you.  Ben Henderson, figures like you are needed in sports.  Fans need a guy to love, they need a guy to hate.  For me it is the latter and I love hating on you, but I do not want you to be the UFC champion any longer.  You are a somewhat exciting fighter historically so I do not want you to leave the UFC altogether.  Just please try finishing a fight and go 10 minutes without being a tool and maybe, just maybe, I will root for you once more.