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Benson Henderson has had a lot of dramatic fights during his career of 34 fights. And as long as this drama stays in the cage, he goes.
It's when he expects to play a completely different game outside the competition that it bothers him.
Henderson, 35, has avoided getting into personal wrangling with his Bellator opponents since he joined the promotion three years ago. Even during his stay at the UFC, "Smooth" was better known for his "After Game, Rent the Lords" than for his heated insults, and he is glad his current employers did not have to to sell as such. than he is: a former world champion looking for another belt to add to his collection.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Henderson was asked about the attention paid to the UFC lightweight division he once reigned over and the impression that the drama provoked by names such as Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor tends to overshadow the other candidates.
"I thank the Lord for not having to do this part of the job," Henderson replied. "And I'm never really busy. I was not one of those guys I have to fix this problem. But no matter, it's as if the duck's water was in the back. This is not much.
"But dude, when you're on a six-in-seven streak and you can not get a title call, or it does not work out the way you want." There are a lot of things, but it's like politics, you do not know what you're doing in the cage, you're better known for what you do outside the cage, which I do not like because I'm rather boring outside the cage. I'm a blue collar, I'm going to work, I'm breaking my mouth at the gym, but I'm not someone who's going to say something weird just to get some other Twitter followers or I'm not going to pose naked for more Instagram followers .. I'm not one of those guys who says something stupid just to get more attention. "
Henderson (26-8) first made himself known as one of the best lightweights in the World Extreme Cagefighting promotion and, by the time he joined the UFC in 2011, he was already a cult hero. From there, Henderson showed that he was truly an elite, winning his first seven UFC fights and winning a world title that he successfully defended three times. Henderson has always maintained the same behavior that seduced him in the first place.
Given his own ascension, he is even more puzzled by the way some of his peers seem to experience a radical change of personality once they have tasted celebrity.
"I think in the UFC it's exactly the way to go. You have to say something incredibly stupid, you have to wear sunglasses on the inside to attract the ## 148 ## "You have to start wearing fur coats." I see these young guys, when they enter the UFC, they are pretty normal, straight, good, just hard workers, that's all. that's how they came to the UFC, and then they go on a series of wins of two fights, three fights and suddenly they wear fur coats for media interviews and wear sunglasses Inside. It's like, who's this guy? Where are you from?
"Yes, we all grow up, we all change, you will not be the same person at 29 years old as you were at 24, but that being said, you will become someone who wears a fur coat in the middle -July, like, come on, be serious there, kid. That's what it is, so I'm very happy, very grateful for not having to deal with this for sure. "
Henderson's only immediate concern is to win his next fight, a lightweight game against Adam Piccolotti that will take place this Saturday at Bellator 220 at the SAP Center in San Jose, California. If he manages to overtake Piccolotti, Henderson will have won three times in a row. longest series since April 2013.
Although Piccolotti has amassed a 7-2 record in the Bellator's cage and looks set to win the title, he does not have the experience or the name of the former Bellator's opponent Henderson, Saad Awad, Roger Huerta, Michael Chandler, Patricio. Freire and Andrey Koreshkov. But it represents an immediate threat to Henderson's goal of becoming a champion again.
"I think now it's the biggest fight of my life," Henderson said of Piccolotti. "That's what matters if I get another title. It's really all that interests me.
"I want to have this Bellator's belt. I need this Bellator belt around the waist and it's the biggest fight to determine it. So, I have to go there, I have to go beat him, make a statement, make a big deal and do whatever is necessary to get that shot, put my belt around my waist. "
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