Champ Henderson unemotional ahead of rematch but says he'll 'beat up' Pettis

UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson (18-2 MMA, 7-0 UFC) insists his rematch with Anthony Pettis (16-2 MMA, 3-1 UFC) will not be an emotional affair. That said, he remembers their historic first encounter, and Henderson insists he’ll “dominate” Pettis this time around.

“It’s not really too much of an emotional fight,” Henderson told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I think in life, sometimes, whether you win or lose – good or bad – you have to move on with your life.

“‘Hey, I won. I had a cool moment. Blah, blah, blah, blah.’ You can’t live off that moment. You can’t play off that forever. You’ve got to move on with the rest of your life. You’ve got to advance and worry about your next opponent, worry about your next opponent after that, worry about getting to a title shot. For me, it’s not too much motion because I was able to do that.”

Henderson and Pettis, of course, first met in December 2010 in the WEC’s final event. At the time, Henderson was defending WEC champ, but Pettis used his now-famous “Showtime” kick to take the final round of the five-round war and clinch a decision win.

Both fighters then migrated to the UFC, and Henderson has been on an absolute tear, downing seven foes in the UFC en route to claiming the UFC lightweight belt and defending the title three times. Henderson said the Pettis loss was beneficial in helping him realize what it was going to take to succeed in the octagon.

“I would say it definitely was a factor, but not necessarily in my training,” Henderson said. “I didn’t have wholesale changes in anything I did. A lot of time guys lose one fight, and they think, ‘Oh, I’ve got to change things up. I’ve got to move and find different coaches.’ Everything pretty much stayed the same. All my coaches stayed the same, all my training partners stayed the same at my gym. So there were no wholesale changes, but I changed the away I approach fights.

“After the Pettis fight, my mindset was to just go in there and go beat the guy up. I don’t care about this or that or media or fans saying this or Dana White saying this or title fights promised. Forget all that. It doesn’t matter. Go out there and beat the guy up. I changed my mindset after that fight.”

Fans have long clamored for the two to meet again, and that will now happen, as Pettis recently stepped in for an injured T.J. Grant and now meets Henderson in the main event of next month’s UFC 164 event, which takes place Aug. 31 at Bradley Center in Pettis’ hometown of Milwaukee.

Henderson said it didn’t take him long to agree to the change of opponent when UFC officials called with the opportunity.

“Cool,” Henderson said he told the UFC. “Sounds good to me. Something I’ve been waiting for for a while, so let’s go ahead and get it done.”

So it would seem that revenge may be a driving motivation for Henderson, as he looks to erase the loss that saw him become Pettis’ ultimate highlight-reel victim. “Smooth” insists that’s not the case.

“I won’t lie to you; I haven’t thought about the rematch a whole lot, to be honest,” Henderson said. “Of course you want to erase it, but you’ve got to understand also that you can’t erase things. You’ve got to man up, get on with your life and move on.

“There are other things that take up your time and your energy, such as winning the UFC title. That was first and foremost on my mind. But in the back of my head, of course, I’ve always been looking forward to getting into the octagon again with Pettis. He worked his way back up to the title shot. They gave it to him, so let’s do it.”

Revenge or not, the fight looks on paper to be a potential barnburner. With their first meeting more than two-and-a-half years in the past, both fighters insists they’ll bring an entirely different skillset to the table. For Henderson, it all boils down to attitude, and he thinks the results are going to be much different than the first time around.

“I took it like a man,” Henderson said. “I lost. It happens. The 18-0 New England Patriots, they lost, but they moved on. They got over it. The ’91 Bulls, when they lost, it happens. You have to man up, move on, accept it, take it for what it is. Learn from it, grow better from it, improve from it, and then go out there and do your thing again.

“I’m going to go out there and beat him up. I’m going to dominate him for five rounds.”

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