This past week at Bellator 253, former lightweight world champion, Benson Henderson (28-10), moved up to the welterweight division. Henderson moved up to take on Jason Jackson in what was his second fight in Bellator‘s welterweight division.
Benson Henderson fought in the welterweight division when he first jumped to Bellator and was dominated. Now to his credit, he was successful in his final two UFC fights which both came at welterweight.
After his failed attempt in Bellator, Henderson decided to move back to his natural weight at 155. Henderson is 5-3 in his eight fights at lightweight in Bellator with two of those losses coming to Michael Chandler.
Back in August, Henderson was knocked out by Michael Chandler in what turned out to be Chandler’s final fight with Bellator. That loss had snapped a four fight winning streak for the former world champion.
After the loss, Henderson made the interesting decision to move up to welterweight to fight Jackson. Henderson looked like the much smaller man at Bellator 253. There was a massive size discrepancy between the two and it played out in the fight.
Henderson appeared to be out of reach all night and he was clearly not as strong in the grappling exchanges. He lost all three rounds on the judges scorecards. After the fight, Scott Coker said he’d like Henderson to return to lightweight.Â
What’s next after Bellator 253?
I completely agree with Coker in that Henderson needs to return to lightweight. Bellator doesn’t need to be offering Henderson anymore fights at welterweight seeing as he’s 0-2 in that weight class and both fights were not close.
Again, Henderson had won four in a row prior to the Chandler fight. Had Henderson won that fight against Chandler, he would have likely earned a shot at the Bellator lightweight championship.
I think the promotion should book him against one of the top contenders at 155. If he looks impressive in his next fight at lightweight, you could make the argument that he should fight Patricio Pitbull again. Henderson does have a win over the Bellator champ but it did come via injury.