It may have taken two plus rounds for him to settle into his rhythm during the main event of WEC 46, but once he did, Benson Henderson latched on a fight-ending guillotine choke early on in the third round of his title match with Jamie Varner to take his place as the Undisputed WEC Lightweight Champion on Sunday, January 10 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento, California. While he was critical of his performance in only his twelfth professional MMA bout, Henderson admitted that he was overcome with joy following his title win.
Tapology’s Steven Kelliher recently caught up with Henderson for an exclusive interview in order to get his detailed thoughts on his fight with Varner, his thoughts on Varner’s incendiary post-fight comments, as well as an account of his experiences training with UFC Lightweight Champion BJ Penn last month in Hilo, Hawaii and what the future holds for the promising young fighter, who maintains that his greatest challenges are still to come.
Tapology: Congratulations on your win over Jamie Varner at WEC 46. Talk about what that whole experience was like for you, winning the Undisputed WEC Lightweight Championship.
Henderson: It was definitely the fight of my career, the fight of my life at this point—the next fight will be the fight of my career at that point—but I was very excited, anxious and ready to go. I knew that Jamie Varner, coming off of that yearlong layoff was really anxious and ready to step into the cage, and because of that the game plan for the first round was to relax and not to be too aggressive. The first round didn’t go as well as I wanted it to; I think he won the first round, but the second round was debatable.
I was a little bit too relaxed in the second round; in hindsight I wish I had picked up the pace a little bit more, but in the third I was able to slap on the guillotine when he shot in, so I was really happy with that.
Tapology: When you were caught in that headlock in the first round, were you ever close to being submitted or was it more of a holding position?
Henderson: No, I wasn’t really close to being submitted at all. I think he wanted to hold position, win the round, and land some good shots on me, and he did a good job—that’s exactly what he did do. He landed some okay shots and he controlled the round, he controlled the position.
Tapology: You mentioned being disappointed with your performance in the second round. Were you originally planning to take him down in that round or was the plan to strike with him?
Henderson: I was planning on standing with him, just to show some of my new stand-up skills that I’ve been working on very hard. We knew that he was a good boxer, but I’ve been working really hard on getting my boxing better, so we wanted to showcase that. It’s hard to do that against a Donald Cerrone type or an Anthony Njokuani type because they’ve been doing stand-up and kickboxing for ten plus years, where I’ve been doing kickboxing for about two years now. Against Varner, we thought we had a better chance to show some of the stuff we had been working on, so that was the game plan.
Tapology: After the fight, Varner claimed that you came to grapple whereas he came to fight. Does that bother you at all or do you think he was just frustrated after the fight?
Henderson: I don’t care about those comments at all. Fighters, we are very emotional people. We put our heart and souls into this and Jamie is a good enough guy, his heart is in the right place; he might be a little bit cocky or arrogant and he might rub some people the wrong way, but I have no problem with him. It was right after the fight and he was emotional.
Look at me; they did my post-fight interview right after and I sounded like an idiot. I was super emotional and happy because I won, so I just went off and sounded like a little girl and super unintelligent. I just wish they would give us a little more time to compose ourselves to answer questions.
Tapology: Including this win, most of your victories have been by choke thus far in your professional career. Is that something that comes naturally to you or do you work it a lot in training?
Henderson: Like anything, in fighting certain things come naturally, but as a professional you have to work on everything. You drill and go over every position and every situation. I have been working a lot on my submission skills. I consider myself a wrestler and submission fighter first and foremost, but I’m working everything.
Tapology: Can you talk about your recent training with BJ Penn?
Henderson: BJ asked Efrain Escudero and me to come down to Costa Mesa, California to help him prepare for Diego Sanchez, and it was a really great situation. I had a chance to watch BJ, and I think he is, pound for pound, the best fighter on the planet; he’s a great guy, real laid back, so that was just a blessing to see the best guy on the planet and to see how he trains and how he gets ready for practice.
Tapology: After training with BJ, what is it about him that makes him as good as he is in your mind?
Henderson: I looked exactly like Diego Sanchez did against BJ in their fight. It was almost exactly the same. Thankfully he didn’t kick me, but he beat the tar out of me every day. It was awesome. It was a blessing to get beat down every day by him, but some of the things I took away were how he prepares for practice, some of the different exercises they do, you know, all of the little nuances that BJ and his camp do differently than I do.
Tapology: You are obviously a champion now. Do you think you are going to change anything up in your training now or are you going to do the same things that have lead to your success thus far in your career?
Henderson: I’m going to do the same things, but to be honest now is the time to really pick it up, to kick it up a notch. I beat a lot of guys to get here, but now that line is going to get even bigger, but I’m not giving it up easily. I’m going to train my butt off even harder to stay on top.
Tapology: I wanted to get your thoughts on a couple of guys you could be defending your title against in rematches: Donald Cerrone and Anthony Njokuani.
Henderson: I think those would be good fights, but I don’t like to speculate until I know for sure. I actually heard there might be a Cerrone vs. Varner rematch and then Shane Roller vs. Anthony Njokuani, so no matter who I face it is going to be a rematch.
Tapology: If you do have to wait for that pack to sort out a top contender, do you mind having the layoff or would you rather stay active?
Henderson: I’m fine with taking some time off in between fights because I’m young in the game. I’ve been fighting for three years now, so I have a long way to go. I have to get a lot better in a lot of different areas, and I know that, but I have all the time in the world and I’m not scared of hard work, so I think taking time off will only be better for me. I want to be the best I can be for each and every fight.
Tapology: Last time we spoke, you said you wanted to eventually be known as the best. Do you think that can be accomplished in the WEC or is it going to take toppling a guy like BJ or whomever the UFC champion might be at the time to solidify a legacy in this sport?
Henderson: To be honest, I’m not really sure. All I know for sure is to be the best, you have to beat the best on the planet—not in the UFC or WEC—but wherever they may be. That’s the ultimate goal of every fighter, and I am just like every other fighter. I just signed a new contract extension (six fights) with the WEC, and I want to fight the best and beat the best until I’m old and gray and they put me to pasture.
Tapology: Thanks for the time, Ben. Good luck.
Henderson: Thank you.
