Benson Henderson currently occupies an unusual space, he has reached the pinnacle of his profession, winning and retaining a world title, but he is not yet a star. At UFC 164, he will be fighting for recognition, something that has so far eluded his tenure as champion, and, because of the opponent, redemption.
As a lightweight in the UFC, Henderson is 7-0 and 4-0 in title fights. That is an impressive feat. The manner of many of his victories, however, has been less so. In seven fights, he has failed to finish a single opponent and two of his three title defenses have been split decisions.
Henderson is the king of his division but he has just been eeking by his opponents. He has not yet achieved that career-defining win. Until that happens, he will remain in the mid to low region of the pound-for-pound rankings and will continue to be an uncelebrated champion.
He is the king of his division, he just has to encapsulate that into a single performance. Destroy the next best guy in the division. The king needs to unquestionably be the king. So far, Henderson has beaten everyone he has needed to at lightweight, just never in spectacular fashion. This is why he is currently treading water as a champion who is not yet a star, still chasing recognition.
In his 13 fights within the WEC and UFC, only one man has beaten Henderson. That man is Anthony Pettis. It was at the last ever WEC event, WEC 53, and Henderson was attempting to defend his lightweight title in his home state of Arizona.
As if losing his title in his home state wasn't bad enough, Henderson was victim to perhaps the most jaw dropping moment in MMA history. In the final minute of the final round, Pettis pulled off the kick heard around the world. The 'Showtime Kick' is one of the sport's greatest highlight reels and Henderson is the recipient.
Redemption is a powerful motivational tool though and Henderson has said that he is looking forward to erasing "that Pettis stain on my soul".
At UFC 164, Henderson will get the chance to kill two birds with one stone. If he beats Pettis, and retains his belt, he will avenge his only loss in the last six years. If he beats him decisively, he can silence the naysayers. Recognition and redemption will be his.
The main event at UFC Fight Night 27 will pit two perennial welterweight contenders against each other in a fight for relevancy. In terms of title contention, one man will be fighting to stay relevant and the other will be fighting to become relevant.
Carlos Condit and Martin Kampmann will fight each other for the second time next Wednesday (Aug. 28) on Fox Sports 1 in Indianapolis, Indiana. In their first bout Kampmann defeated Condit via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28), it was Condit's promotional debut and only Kampmann's second fight as a welterweight in the UFC. Now, however, they are both seasoned campaigners in the division with UFC gold on their minds.
Since their first meeting, and despite losing, it is Condit who has had more success. Following that split decision loss in 2009, Condit has gone 5-2 in the UFC. It was a run that included a five fight winning streak that only came to an end when he faced Georges St-Pierre, unsuccessfully, for the UFC welterweight championship. He is currently the number two ranked welterweight in the UFC and his last six fights have produced five post-fight bonuses and an interim title.
Kampmann, on the other hand, is 5-4 since he fought Condit and two of those losses were via TKO in the first round. His path has not been laden with gold nor has it come even come close. Instead, he has spent his 11 fight spell as a welterweight in the UFC stuck in the lower half of the top 10. He is currently ranked at number six in the UFC's official rankings.
They both have three opponents in common and, interestingly,
they share the same results. They both lost to Jake Shields, beat JakeEllenberger and they were both beaten by number one contender Johny Hendricks
in their last outing. So MMA math is especially useless here.
Condit has worn both UFC and WEC gold and is still under 30, he is firmly entrenched in the upper echelon of the welterweight division. This territory, occupied by a small number of elite fighters, is one that Condit is fighting to remain in and Kampmann is fighting to break into. Kampmann has always been on the outside looking in, a couple of big wins are usually followed by a loss and his progression up the rankings stalls.
After dropping back to back fights, Condit's back is up against the wall, a win is pretty much a necessity if he has any intention of remaining relevant in the title picture. Kampmann, however, is at a crossroads. A win thrusts him into the title picture and a loss condemns him as a perennial 5-10 ranked welterweight, completely irrelevant as a title threat.
This headline fight is intriguingly poised, it is a rare non-title fight with real consequences. They will both, under different circumstances, be fighting for relevancy.
The main event at UFC Fight Night 26 is Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua vs Chael Sonnen. They are both in the twilight of their careers and they are both coming into this fight off a loss, two in Sonnen's case. To continue being someone who matters, a win on Saturday night is pretty much a necessity.
Since defeating Chuck Liddell in the first round in 2009, Shogun has traded wins and losses in the UFC. His overall record in the company is 6-6. Sonnen's record in the UFC, in two separate stints, is strikingly similar at 5-5. A combined record of 11-11 is not something you would expect from participants in the headline bout of a UFC card. However, their records are more of a testament to the level of competition they have faced rather than a knock on their talent or lack thereof.
Interestingly, despite seeming very similar, their records in the UFC, upon closer examination, can be quite contrasting. Both are .500 fighters whose losses came against only the best. Their wins, however, are quite different. The five victories in Shogun's UFC career were against opponents who are 7-16 over the last four years. Sonnen's victories in the UFC came against opponents who, conversely, are 29-17 in the last four years.
Other than his title winning effort against Lyoto Machida, Shogun's wins in the UFC have come against Mark Coleman, Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin and Brandon Vera. All of whom were aging fighters past their prime by the time Shogun met them in the octagon. Sonnen's wins, on the other hand, were against legitimate contenders. Fighters like Yushin Okami, Nate Marquardt, Brian Stann and Michael Bisping.
This, perhaps, partly explains why Sonnen is currently the favorite despite the fact that he has never won in the UFC as a light heavyweight and Shogun is the former UFC light heavyweight champion. There are, of course, other factors that determine Sonnen's status as favorite. Neither wrestling nor cardio is Shogun's strong suit but Sonnen excels in both. A troublesome combination for Shogun, especially in a five round fight.
These two fighters are battling to swim against the current. They are in the autumn of their careers and title opportunities are moving further and further away. The loser will almost certainly never be thought of as a contender again.
Since he lost his title, Shogun has twice lost to fellow contenders and is now firmly behind in the pecking order. Alexander Gustaffson will be the next man to face Jon Jones then there is Glover Teixeira, Daniel Cormier and Phil Davis waiting in the wings. Sonnen has lost all three of his title fights in the UFC. In fact, his last two fights were defeats in title bouts, in two different divisions. Both men are in desperate need of a win if they are to remain relevant.
Sonnen, however, is in a slightly better position than Shogun. He recently announced that he has signed a new five-fight contract with the UFC and will be moving back down to middleweight following the fight with Shogun. The consequences of a Sonnen loss, therefore, have been greatly diminished now he is leaving the light heavyweight division behind. Whereas Shogun is in danger of falling out of the top ten should he be defeated on Saturday night.
Luckily for Sonnen, Anderson Silva lost his belt and the middleweight division has opened up for him. Sonnen was likely to never get another shot at Silva and the middleweight title again. But now Chris Weidman is the champion, fighters like Sonnen and Belfort are back in the running for a shot at the belt (providing Weidman retains his belt at UFC 168).
Also, Sonnen has been, rather vocally, targeting Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva lately. So there are, at least, some interesting potential match-ups in his future. The same can't really be said for Shogun. A loss would be devastating. Rather than making runs at the title, he would instead, should his career continue, take on the role as gatekeeper for entry into the upper echelon of the division. A depressing duty for a legendary fighter to undertake. There is just something so sad about witnessing the gradual decline of a former champion, the transformation from a lion into just the guy in a lion's suit.
The outcome of the main event at UFC Fight Night 26 will very likely reinvigorate the career of the victor whilst killing the career of the defeated. One man's prospects may be sunnier than the others but both men, to some extent, are in the last chance saloon.
UFC 163 has been broken, fixed, broken and put back together again. The event is an unwanted return to the injury-ravaged cards that plagued 2012 for the UFC.
The injury bug has returned with a vengeance and UFC 163 bore the brunt of the damage. The main card in particular has been bit hard, all but one of the bouts have either been altered or removed altogether due to injuries. Lyoto Machida vs. Phil Davis is the only fight on the main card that has remained unchanged.
First, the original main event, Jose Aldo vs. Anthony Pettis, fell through. This, unquestionably, would have been one of the biggest fights of the year. Both are astonishingly talented and have the potential to be multi-divisional champions. The thought of those two sharing a cage really whet the appetite of the MMA community. It wasn't to be though, Pettis injured his knee and was replaced by Jung Chan-Sung - or the Korean Zombie as the UFC has, solely, marketed him in all of their promotional content.
Even though this is almost guaranteed to be a fun fight, it is still somewhat of a mismatch.
The Zombie may be the most exciting fighter in MMA. In the past three years, he has won two fight of the year awards which sandwiched a submission of the year honor. Nevertheless, Aldo is a top three pound-for-pound fighter and the Zombie is just three fights removed from a two fight losing streak that featured Leonard Garcia and George Roop. According to BestFightOdds, Aldo is a big favorite in the -800 range. If Aldo fails to defend his belt on Saturday night it will be considered a sizable upset.
After the replacement main event was announced in June, main card fights began dropping like flies in July. The first victim was Josh Koscheck, after his injury, his proposed bout with Demian Maia was removed from the card. Then on the same day a week later, Phil Harris and Clint Hester suffered injuries and were replaced with unknown Brazilians Jose Maria Tome and Thiago Santos.
Replacements haven't only affected the fighters, the UFC's commentary team has also been subject to change. For the first time since UFC 134, also held in Brazil, Joe Rogan will be absent from a PPV. Instead, the recently retired Brian Stann will take his place.
The plethora of changes has significantly impacted the event. UFC 163 was once a deep card with a main event that fans were chomping at the bit to see. Now, however, it has become almost the opposite. Other than the main and co-main event, there is very little top shelf talent featured and the main event, which before was bordering on a super fight, is now a relative mismatch.
The disarranged card will have even the most hardcore of MMA fans Googling the names of some of the fighters competing. As is always the case with events in Brazil, the card is loaded with Brazilians and, due to the number of late replacements, many are unknown to the majority of fans. Six fighters on the card don't even have a Wikipedia page, Sherdog will have to suffice for research purposes. The third fight on the PPV, a spot usually reserved for well-known fighters in the upper echelon of their division, will be Cezar Ferreira vs. Thiago Santos. Those who don't watch TUF: Brazil, or have in-depth knowledge of the local MMA circuit in the country, will likely have no idea who Ferreira and Santos are. This is a common scenario throughout the card.
As long as the pesky non-Brazilians don't win, the card will likely be a hit with the crowd. Especially if, like the last time he fought in Rio de Janiero, Aldo wins by spectacular knockout and then runs into the crowd to celebrate with the fans. However, outside of Brazil, its popularity may be slightly lacking. The patchwork, makeshift nature of the card has dampened some of the enthusiasm it once mustered. Big fights and popular names have fallen by the wayside and the buy rate for this PPV will likely take the hit.
