Former UFC MMA fighter, Benson Henderson, has now moved to its rival promotion company, Bellator.
Last February 1st, Henderson made a bold decision of moving to Bellator but not before posting out a gratitude letter to all those who have helped in the UFC. With all those being taken care of, Henderson, who has a record of 23-5 MMA and 0-0 BMMA, revealed that he has a new set of goals to reach. But first, he has to win over Andrey Koreshkov, who is holding a record of 18-1 MMA and 9-1 BMMA. Their much awaited bout would be held as the main card this coming Bellator 153 in Uncasville, Connecticut. Just like the other Bellator fights, this bout would be aired on Spike.
Henderson also revealed that this promotional MMA debut felt very much similar to how he went about his move from WEC to the UFC five years ago.
“I think it’s very similar. Coming over from the WEC to the UFC, we definitely had some chips on our shoulders. I think UFC and Bellator, a lot of guys have a big bullseye on my back, gunning for me. But that’s been the case for a while now. It’s nothing that I’m not used to. I’m accustomed to that. If I do a local jiu-jitsu tournament here in Arizona, if I go do worlds or Pan Ams in a jiu-jitsu tournament, I’ve got a pretty big bullseye on my back. If 
anybody can beat me at anything, they’re going to want to do that. That’s the competitive nature of us fighters, of us athletes. We want to be competitive and get our hand raised against the best. I think going over to Bellator, I’m going to have a huge bullseye. Everybody is going to want to get a chance to face off against me, to beat me, to get their hand raised against me. That only makes me drive that much more. That makes me that much more driven – that much more impassioned. I am going to lose eventually. It happens to everybody. Wer’re all going to lose. But it’s not going to happen right now. You’re not the guy. For me, it just fuels my fire. It get me more fired up. It makes me want to go beat up some more guys,” he said.
So Henderson, now a former UFC and WEC lightweight MMA champion, will aim for a Bellator welterweight belt in his promotional debut. With that, Henderson admits that he isn’t sure how his career would unfold. Now at age 32 years old, Henderson says that he sees a few possibilities.
“It’s not for sure yet, but there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be dropping back down to 155. There’s a ton of interesting matchups down there. But for right now, it’s 170, and I’m focused on getting my hand raised against that next guy. That’s where all my focus has to be at. I don’t think I’ll have a concrete home, where it’s just 155 or just 170. For a while, I’ll be going back and forth in both. Bellator is super awesome and amazing in allowing that and letting me play it like that,” Henderson admitted.
However, Henderson said that is not yet ready to get all of those situations in his head. For now, what he would like to do is to prove everyone what he can do in the MMA industry.
“I’m not too much for big talk. I never liked talking a whole lot. I like to have my actions speak for themselves. I like to talk inside of that cage. So for me right now, I’m just focused on getting my hand raised. It’s Andrey Koreshkov next. I have to get my hand raised against him. Everything else will figure itself out. Everything else will take care of itself later on. Right now, my man concentration – my only concentration – is getting my hand raised against Andrey and having as great of a performance as possible,” he added.