Benson Henderson understands that he’s doing something big.
The former UFC lightweight champion made waves in the MMA community this month after turning down a new contract with the UFC to sign with Bellator MMA.
With his old job behind him and an April 22 Bellator welterweight title fight on the horizon, Henderson (23-5) sat down with Newsday to discuss the move and his future:
When did you first get the inkling that your time in the UFC was coming to an end?
BH: “I wouldn’t say I had any inklings, but I was coming to terms when I had three fights, four fights left on my contract with the UFC. I signed an eight-fight deal. When I was getting toward the end of the contract, and having three, two, one fight left, I was like, ‘I think I want to enter free agency, I think I want to see what my worth is.’ The UFC is going to present a contract extension and I’ll take a look and see. They offered a contract after my second-to-last fight. Right before my last fight they offered another contract extension and I said no to both of them. So I’d say with three fights or two fights left that I wanted to try free agency.”
What was the process like shopping different organizations?
BH: “The biggest thing is that it was a test of patience. Waiting to hear back from this company, this organization, that organization. But it was good, got to field a lot of different offers, talk to a couple kickboxing organizations because I want to try my hand at kickboxing. Talked to ONE FC, Bellator, a couple other organizations in Asia. I enjoyed it, it was cool to field offers to be able to talk to different people and meet new people, so I enjoyed it.”
In the end, what made Bellator the right fit?
BH: “For me, it was a lot of the intangibles they brought to the table, intangibles the UFC just can’t match. Stuff the UFC doesn’t have the ability to match. Free cable television with the network deal they have with Spike, Bellator being open to me having kickboxing matches or boxing matches they can co-promote, so them being open to that idea, I loved that also. I’m one of those individuals who likes to test myself and find out how good I really am, no matter what it is. I would love to test myself in boxing and kickboxing, I think I can go pretty high in the kickboxing world, and Bellator is open to that.”
You’ve competed in other sports as well, is that allowed under the contract?
BH: “That’s the other thing, I was able to sign a ‘for the love of the game’ clause with Bellator. I also want to go do jiu-jitsu tournaments, wrestling tournaments. Bellator allows me to continue doing that, to go to do [ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship] in 2017 and not have any qualms about it, not get any stink-eyes from the upper guys and Bellator VPs, not have any ill feelings toward me doing competitions.”
Did you ever get those stink-eyes and weird feelings from UFC people when you competed elsewhere while still under contract?
BH: “I got a couple stink-eyes and a couple letters of rebuke, but not too much.”
Do you feel like Bellator really made things personal for you?
BH: “For sure, and that was the other great thing about Bellator, they were super open and gracious enough to construct our contract in a different way. In the UFC, it’s ‘this is our contract, and this is how it is’ and there’s no wiggle room or individuality there. Bellator was super awesome being open to different ideas and things in a contract.”
Is that in terms of payment options, such as gate percentages, or just activities outside the cage?
BH: “Both sides, but they were open to it. UFC’s just not open to it. ‘Nope, we don’t talk about that, we don’t discuss it.’ You can’t even talk about? What do you mean? We can’t even discuss it at all? So that was kind of odd to me, you know? I think the key to all relationships, whoever they are, is communication and having open communication. With Bellator, everything was open and transparent, and you’ve got to love that.”
How much did the UFC’s exclusive deal with Reebok factor into your decision to leave?
BH: “That made a huge, huge impact on the deal. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t play into the deal. Reebok deal, we’ll see how it plays out, it’s playing out to mediocre fanfare so far. For me, I’m one of the fighters who lost out on a lot of money, a lot of money, when the rumors of the Reebok deal came out, and when it went into effect, I lost out on a lot of money. Being told I have to wear this, then being compensated with a few pennies, I’m not a big fan of. Being told I have to do this and being compensated with nothing, I’m not a big fan of. I’m not an employee, I’m an independent contractor, and if you’re an independent contractor, you don’t have to do certain things. So being told what to wear, you have to wear this, you have to do this, you have to dance like this for us, dance like that for us, I wasn’t a big fan of that. So again, that’s something Bellator brought to the table that UFC can’t, you’re not allowed. I was in the top tier, you can look it up in public records, the top tier for the Reebok deal is $20,000, so if I were to fight four times in a year at $20,000 is $80,000 in sponsorship money. So for a whole year I get 80K for wearing Reebok and that would’ve been over $100,000 I would’ve lost in that one year from the Reebok deal.”
LINK: Q&A with Bellator’s Benson Henderson
