9 Questions for Benson Henderson

Benson Henderson will look to make some history when he challenges Andrey Koreshkov for the Bellator MMA welterweight championship in the Bellator 153 main event on Friday at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. If “Smooth” emerges from his promotional debut victorious, he will become the first fighter to have won titles in Bellator, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and World Extreme Cagefighting. In this exclusive interview with Sherdog.com, Henderson discussed his departure from the UFC, his move to Bellator and his forthcoming title fight with Koreshkov:Sherdog.com: Koreshkov is a well-rounded fighter who has only been beaten once. What do you see in his game and how he fights? Henderson: He’s a tough kid. He throws his hands like he means it. He’s not scared to throw his hands, either. A lot of these guys have real technical hands, but they don’t really throw hard; not this guy. He’s not overly technical when he throws, but when he does, they have mean intentions all over them. That says a lot of about his character — that and the fact that he is not afraid at all to throw some spinning back kicks. He throws some pretty unorthodox stuff out there, and it takes a lot of courage to throw that type of stuff. It always keeps your opponent on their toes when you do that.Sherdog.com: How have you seen his style progress over his last few fights, especially since his loss? Henderson: I can tell that he’s worked quite a bit on his wrestling and grappling. He was out-grappled quite a bit when he fought Ben Askren. A couple of fights later, we see him using his much-improved grappling to defeat Douglas Lima and win the belt. That said a lot about him as an athlete and of his coaching staff [and] his team, in that he was able to improve so much on that one aspect of his game to the point where he was able to beat a great fighter and win a world title.Sherdog.com: What other obvious improvements have you seen in his game? Henderson: Everything, really. He’s become a very well-rounded fighter. He does everything well, and he’s improved in pretty much all areas of his game. He’s also very confident, too, and you can see that when he fights. He just won the title, so his confidence levels are likely through the roof. I expect him to be at his absolute best when we fight because this is …

continue reading in source www.sherdog.com