Former UFC Lightweight champion Benson Henderson needed a win in tonight’s UFC 169 main event to get a third shot at Anthony Pettis. He lived up to his end of the bargain.
Josh Thomson, Henderson’s opponent, was also fighting for a title shot and his first few rounds showed his hunger. Thomson took down Henderson 5 times in the first two rounds of Saturday night’s fight. Then everything took a turn for the worst for Josh. His hand was broken mid-way through the 3rd round and he wasn’t the same from that point forward.
Henderson wasted no time in capitalising on the injury to Thomson. He used the better part of the last three rounds to methodically pick apart Josh with kicks and jabs. Josh was able to still land some great takedowns but he couldn’t grapple with Henderson without the proper grip.
Henderson ended up with the split decision victory, which was controversially because the deciding card had Henderson 4 rounds to 1 over Thomson. At best the fight was won by Henderson in the very last round and even that was a clear cut round for Benson.
In the end a win is a win and I’m sure Henderson set his sights toward a third match against current champion Anthony Pettis. The first time Pettis defeated Henderson he took the WEC championship from him and this most recent fight ended with Pettis taking the UFC lightweight title at UFC 164.
UFC President Dana White wasn’t impressed with tonight’s fight and isn’t going to just promote Henderson to number one contender status.
“Ben Henderson lost twice to Pettis, the champion, and he got destroyed last fight,” White said. “He didn’t do anything that’s going to have anybody screaming, ‘Oh, I want to see him get another shot at Pettis.’”
White went on to talk about why tonight’s fight disappointed him:
“The fight was a lot closer. I don’t think either guy really went after it and tried to pull out the win.
“This is always a problem. My thing is, you guys both know you’re fighting for the chance to get a shot at the title, OK? you’re getting a shot at the title. You go. Go, go, go.”
“Go for broke. Don’t ever leave it in the judges’ hands, or at least put on enough of a performance to know you won because you can never trust the judges.”
Gilbert Melendez, the former Strikeforce lightweight champion, is waiting in the wings and he’ll want claim to that number one contender spot now that it is up for grabs. Anthony Pettis is still recovering from a leg injury, so Dana White has the perfect opportunity to have a #1 contenders match in the near future between Melendez and Henderson.