Benson Henderson is arguably the most important fighter to leave the UFC to Bellator. A former WEC and UFC lightweight champion that’s 2-0 at welterweight and still in his prime joining the competition is a huge deal, as it lays to rest any fan-arguments about quality of competition between the two promotions. While Bendo may be the most important fighter to leave the UFC in recent memory, he’s joined a growing number of fighters finding that the grass might be greener on Spike. We spoke to him about leaving the UFC, the differences between Bellator and the UFC, and his toothpick which seemingly never leaves his mouth. I was in the media room in Milwaukee at Hardy vs. Lytle back in 2011 with you and Donald Cerrone claiming the WEC guys were taking over. We saw how strong the WEC was, and now ex-Strikeforce fighters are at the top of almost every division in the UFC. Is Bellator getting a bad rap as a second-tier organization? Will the fighters there one day take over the industry like Strikeforce and WEC? Ah, that’s cool. Yeah, it’s always the same kind of thing as far as organization and people wondering, “Oh, how’s this stack up, how’s that up?” We’re all fighters, we train together, doesn’t matter what organization you fight for. We all train together. You train with UFC fighters, train with Strikeforce fighters, WEC fighters, Bellator fighters, doesn’t matter. So we all know how tough we are. The reporters, the other people, the fans, they don’t understand. “Oh, this organization, that organization.” No, we all train together, we all know how tough everybody is. I read an interesting piece on the exodus of fighters that you were quoted in, and Matt Mitrione was talking about how the UFC promotes itself and not the fighters. Is that why you think you have a better opportunity in Bellator? No, I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that. I think the UFC does a good job of promoting the fighters. They promoted me pretty well. It would behoove them to promote the fighters. They should promote more fighters than the chosen few. Different type of fighters. But they’re a business, they can chose who they promote however they want to. But of the type of individual they choose to promote, they choose to promote more a solid upstanding citizen than other types. I think they’ve done a good job, obviously, when they promote you they promote their own brand and the more they promote you the more they promote themselves. The more you promote yourself, the more the UFC promotes the organization, all that sort of stuff. So, I don’t have a complaint with the UFC as far as promoting the fighters or promoting themselves. Not that, more like who they chose to promote perhaps, or the type of individual that they promote. Let’s say, like, solid, stand-up guys, lots of them in the UFC, good guys, stand-up guys. Not, you know, loud-mouthed, brash, arrogant, and cocky. They don’t choose to promote the stand-up guys who don’t talk a whole lot, but they can do what they want, it’s their business. So let’s be clear here — do you think you’re being underrepresented compared to the Conor McGregors of the world?

No, I think there are so many good guys in the UFC. As a fighter, you get to know some guys that butt heads, some guys are this, some guys are that. It is what it is, you know? But there’s just so many good guys that you can chose to promote but then you don’t. There’s so many of them. On any fight card there are 10, 12 good, solid, awesome dudes who are just awesome family guys, good dads, good stand-up quality guys, but they choose to promote maybe two guys instead and those guys are loud or this or that. I think it’s just a numbers game as well. At this stage of your career, a former WEC champ and former UFC champ, do you feel more pressure than ever before? I wouldn’t say so exactly. I think I place the most amount of pressure on myself. I put pressure on myself to get my hand raised, period. End of story. Doesn’t matter what story there is or what incidentals there are or this or that. Doesn’t matter. I place the most amount of pressure on myself to get my hand raised, I expect to get my hand raised, I expect to win, I expect to be world champion. That’s what I expect of myself, that’s why I put so much pressure on myself. Since you’re so intertwined with what’s currently going on at the top of the UFC despite being in a different organization, I’d love to get your thoughts on a few fights. You beat Nate Diaz. What are your thoughts on him beating McGregor? If you’re gonna sit there and box with them — Nate Diaz, Nick Diaz — they’re pretty good at that. It might be a bad day for you. If you make it a kickboxing fight or if you make it a grappling session, if you kickbox the way Josh Thomson kickboxed Nate Diaz, or out-wrestle, out-grapple him or kick box him out the way I did against Nate Diaz, it might be a better thing for you. Conor, I think, tried to box him, had a pretty a good boxing bout, and Conor landed some good shots, Nate landed some good shots. But you never want to play a guy straight, you never want to do that. If the guy is strong here, don’t go there, go the other way. If the guy’s not strong here, guess what, that’s where I’m personally going to attack. Where they’re not too strong. Thoughts on Frankie Edgar getting an interim featherweight title shot against Jose Aldo? Oh, I hadn’t heard that. I think that would be a super fun fight to watch. They’ve faced off before. Jose, I’m a little bit biased, I know him personally, he’s a good guy, I like him a lot. Jose, man, he’s one of the top two fighters on the planet, pound-for-pound, if you ask me. I think it’s gonna be a pretty tough fight. They fought one time, he won’t fight like that again, but I think Frankie won’t make it as much of a stand-up fight this time. Perhaps Frankie will use his wrestling more, he’ll learn from his past mistakes and say maybe we’ll take it to the ground a little bit more. Frankie will be more adamant about taking it to the ground. How is your relationship with Scott Coker and what are the differences in working with him compared to previous bosses?