Benson Henderson looking to put Michael Chandler away: His chin is not the same

NEW YORK – Benson Henderson doesn’t plan on leaving things in the hands of the judges this time around.

Henderson (28-8 MMA, 5-3 BMMA) rematches Michael Chandler (20-5 MMA, 17-5 BMMA) at Bellator 244 on June 6 in Chicago in a title eliminator bout, looking to avenge his loss from over three years ago, when he was narrowly defeated by then-Bellator lightweight champion Chandler.

The two were originally scheduled to rematch in December, but an injury forced Henderson out, the first time in the former UFC and WEC lightweight champion’s 14-year career he withdrew from a fight.

Henderson revealed that he actually went into his first fight with Chandler carrying a series of injuries, so he vowed not to make the same mistake again, opting to pull out, and have the fight rescheduled for a later date.

“My last fight against Chandler, I fought with a torn ACL,” Henderson told MMA Junkie. “I had a torn ACL, torn MCL, two torn meniscus and I still decided to fight anyways. Probably not the best decision. So for this one, I was like ‘yeah, maybe I should be healthy.’ You’re never like one-hundred percent, you always have nicks and bruises but fighting with a torn ACL, fighting with a broken bone, probably wouldn’t have been a smart thing to do.”

Their first fight was close,  as Henderson suffered a split-decision loss. But this time, he thinks battle-tested Chandler won’t be as durable, and he’ll look to capitalize.

“Chandler, he can get it as many times as he wants to,” Henderson said. “If he wants to fight 10 times, that’s no problem but I’m going to win nine of those 10 times. He got the first one, they gave it to him as a split decision. The next nine, I’ll be putting him away. I’ll be finishing him, looking for submissions, looking for the knockout. His chin’s not the same as it was earlier in his career.

“Earlier in his career, he was known as throwing hard, and having a good chin and this and that. Now he doesn’t throw quite as hard. Now his chin is a little more suspect and he relies on his wrestling a lot more in his later fights and I don’t think he’ll be able to rely on that against me, outwrestling me in our next fight.”