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 UFC has finalized its schedule for the remainder of 2013 and, should the injury bug stay away, it promises to be an impressively prolific spell.
From now until the end of the year, all nine of the UFC's active champions will defend their belts. This remarkable period of MMA will begin at UFC on Fox 8 on July 27 with Demetrious Johnson vs. John Moraga and climax at UFC 168 on Dec. 28 when Anderson Silva rematches Chris Weidman. Two of the events in this time, UFC 165 and UFC 168, will even feature two title fights, the only other event in UFC history to do so was UFC 100 in 2009. During this time, there will also be some very fine UFC on Fox Sports 1 events. Examples being, Chael Sonnen vs. Shogun Rua, Carlos Condit vs. Martin Kampmann and Michael Bisping vs. Mark Munoz.
Interestingly, Johnson vs. Moraga will be the only title bout to not headline a pay-per-view event, it will instead be shown on Fox. Johnson holds the reluctant honour of being the only champion in the UFC to have never headlined a pay-per-view event. It is, however, an understandable decision, the flyweight division is still relatively unknown and Johnson has little name recognition. At this point in his career he would struggle to carry a pay-per-view, appearances on Fox, with more viewers, should help boost his celebrity.
It has occurred purely by coincidence but as the year moves closer towards its end, the events ascend in both size and star power. Like a good opera, this period of events in the UFC appears to form a rising crescendo until it hits a peak and finishes with a big finale.
Seven events from now until the end of the year will feature title fights. The first three of these will be headlined by title fights in three of the lighter weight classes, flyweight, featherweight and lightweight. First, it will be Demetrious Johnson vs. John Moraga at UFC on Fox 8 on July 27. Then, José Aldo vs. Jung Chan-Sung at UFC 163 on Aug. 3 and Benson Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis at UFC 164 on Aug. 31.
The concluding four events will be headlined by light-heavyweight, heavyweight, welterweight and middleweight title bouts. In chronological order, these fights will be Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson and Renan Barao vs. Eddie Wineland at UFC 165 on Sept. 21, Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos at UFC 166 on Oct. 19, Georges St-Pierre vs Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on Nov. 16 and Chris Weidman vs. Anderson Silva and Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate at UFC 168 on Dec. 28.
Historically, events headlined by the lighter fighters are not as financially and commercially successful as their heavier counterparts. So this crescendo begins with events headlined by three of the lighter champions, it then ascends onto the two heaviest and climaxes with events headlined by the two biggest pay-per-view stars in the sport. The final event of the year, UFC 168, the big finale, even has the possibility of being the biggest in UFC history. The rest of 2013 should be a blockbuster period for both the UFC and its fans.
Super fight is a term that gets thrown around a lot in combat sports. It is also a term that is tricky to define.
In my last post, I discussed super fights in the UFC. I, personally, used the term 'super fights' to describe potential bouts involving the top three pound for pound fighters in the sport. However, a lot of the time it is simply used as a promotional tool to hype up fights that are not really deserving of the label.
Maybe the term has been bastardized over time. Words are often overused to the point where they lose their true meaning. Love, hate and literally hit their saturation points a long time ago, the significance behind them has been diminished greatly. One could argue that this is what is happening with the term 'super fight'.
The truth is there is no real definition. We just need to decide how we are going to use it.
So which fights do we brand as a super fight? Is it simply champion vs. champion or is it more complicated than that? Maybe legend vs. legend is deserving of the title? What about pound for pound great vs. pound for pound great?
I think the answer is much more subjective.
A true super fight is, in part, determined by the fans. The desire to see those two particular individuals face off must be intense. It is the kind of fight that your mum will know is happening. The kind of fight the mainstream media take notice of. Usually, these fights seem destined not to take place. And that’s why we are fascinated by them, if shooting stars were witnessed every night they wouldn't be as special. A true super fight is generally years in the making, it's the teasing and anticipation that makes it that much more enticing.
On that basis, I would determine that there are only two true super fights to be made in the UFC, George St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva and Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones.
There, does however, seem to be an awkward no man’s land when it comes to super fights. They occupy the area between a run of the mill title fight and a contest that decides who is the pound for pound king. The fights that operate in this space are fights I like to call the ‘not quite’ super fights.
A recent example of what I’m talking about was the Jose Aldo vs. Frankie Edgar fight. This was even talked about as a super fight, but almost half-heartedly. The anticipation and excitement for this fight was higher than that of Aldo’s previous title defenses yet was distinctly lower than what could be expected if GSP was to fight Silva. Maybe this was because Edgar was no longer a champion and was riding a two-fight losing streak. Nevertheless, these were two of the top ten pound for pound fighters in the world doing battle, the featherweight king versus the former lightweight king. There was just a certain something missing, they were not fighting for the right to be known as the greatest fighter on Earth.
There are more of these ‘not quite’ super fights to be made in the UFC. As my previous post discussed, they are plenty of obstacles to overcome in order for a true super fight to go down. The fun part about the ‘not quite’ super fights is that they are much more likely to take place.
Working from bottom to top let’s start with Jose Aldo vs. Benson Henderson. Earlier this year, it was revealed that if Aldo beats Anthony Pettis in August he will move up and face Henderson for the lightweight title.
Next up there is Henderson vs. GSP. In February, Henderson called out the long-time welterweight champ. This was days after Pettis decided to move down to featherweight and fight Aldo instead of fighting Henderson for the lightweight title, for which he was the number one contender. They have previous and Henderson was upset Pettis moved down so maybe his call out of GSP was just a bit posturing. Nonetheless, if Henderson continues winning there could be big paydays for him down the line.
Finally, to complete our list, there is Jon Jones vs. Cain Velasquez. It was pretty much inevitable that Jones will move up to heavyweight at some point, he has even stated that it could be as early as the end of this year. Which means a bout between Jones and Velasquez could conceivably take place in 2014.
These are all big fights. They are fantasy fights. They are champion vs. champion fights. Yet they still fall within that no man’s land. They are more special than typical title fights but not quite as epic as the GSP vs. Silva or Silva vs. Jones super fights would be. They are the ‘not quite’ super fights.
