Benson Henderson aims to keep perfect vs. Jackson's MMA at UFC Fight Night 42

(This story first appeared in Thursday’s USA TODAY.)

More often than not, sports rivalries boil down to player against player, coach against coach or team against team.

It’s rare for a rivalry storyline to develop between an athlete and an opposing coach, but that’s become the case between former UFC lightweight titleholder Benson Henderson and famed trainer Greg Jackson.

To date, Henderson (20-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) owns a 3-0 record against fighters trained under the tutelage of Jackson, whose gym is located in Albuquerque, N.M. He has defeated Donald Cerrone twice, Clay Guida once and will get the chance to improve his unblemished mark against Rustam Khabilov (17-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 42 (10 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1) headliner – which happens to be in Albuquerque, giving Khabilov a home-cage advantage.

Even though he is readying for his fourth bout against one of Jackson’s fighters, Henderson says he feels no heat toward the opposing gym. In fact, Henderson tries to downplay the angle of any rivalry, saying that it’s hard to build one when one side has all the wins.

“There’s not much of a rivalry,” Henderson told USA TODAY Sports. “Our gym, (The MMA Lab), against Greg Jackson’s gym, I think we’re like 7-0 against them. I’m 3-0, so we don’t really see it as a rivalry.”

For Henderson, the discussion of a rivalry with Jackson is meaningless. His goal is to defeat the fighter on the other side of the octagon, not his coach. While his previous success against some of Jackson’s fighters provides a confidence booster, he knows he must enter the fight with the same desire as any of his previous bouts.

“Khabilov is tough,” Henderson said. “I have to go out there and get my hand raised.”

Despite striking out on three previous attempts against “Smooth,” Jackson feels no added pressure to finally break out of his slump. That’s because as a coach who is pulled in many different directions, Jackson believes it would be a disservice to the rest of his athletes to allow a specific fighter or gym to consume him.

“I never really think in those terms,” Jackson said. “I don’t keep score because we have so many fights going on every month. They are a great team, and it will be a lot of fun trying to fight against him again. What happened in the past doesn’t matter much. It just matters what we do on Saturday.”

The winner of the scheduled five-round main event between Henderson and Khabilov at Tingley Coliseum will gain a strong position in the UFC’s 155-pound title picture. Even though there’s no personal animosity between Henderson and Jackson, the competitive battle going into the high-stakes fight is at a peak.

Jackson doesn’t want to place added stress on the situation by giving attention to his winless record, but there’s no denying he’d like to bring it to an end. If there’s a time and place to turn the situation around and start a run of his own, it’s hard to picture a better scenario than Saturday.

“It will be Rustam’s toughest fight for sure, and he’s going to have his work cut out for him,” Jackson said. “Rustam put together a good game plan, and if he puts together the right performance, I think we’ll win. I’m looking forward to seeing where Rustam is in his run for the title.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 43, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.