Even when sending a message, Benson Henderson remains difficult to understand

Benson Henderson

Leave it to Benson Henderson to be cryptic even when he’s clearly trying to make a statement. Anyone who’s been paying attention all these years would expect nothing less, and anyone who hasn’t shouldn’t expect to understand.

It started moments after Henderson (23-5 MMA, 11-3 UFC) defeated Jorge Masvidal (29-10 MMA, 6-3 UFC) via split-decision in the main event of UFC Fight Night 79 in Seoul on Saturday.

After the standard post-fight remarks (Henderson can do all things through Christ, in case you haven’t heard by now), the former UFC lightweight champion removed his gloves, made sure we all noticed as he placed them on the mat, then looked into the camera to ask whether his victory in the main event was “impressive enough to warrant facing off with you.” (See the video of his post-fight octagon interview with Kenny Florian below.)

The identity of the “you” in that statement wasn’t clear. In all likelihood, it wasn’t supposed to be. This had the ring of a message intended for a very small audience. It was also a message delivered in an uncertain climate, seeing as how this was the last fight on Henderson’s current UFC contract, and at a time when rival promotion Bellator has shown great interest in snapping up free-agent fighters with a name and a fan base.

Not that Henderson was about to shed any light on his thinking in that department, of course. At the post-fight press conference, Henderson told MMAjunkie only that he knew where he’d end up, but not necessarily where he’d go next.

“When I retire, it will be retiring in the UFC – I know that for sure,” Henderson said. “But I’m going to test the market, yes.”

In fighter speak, that means Henderson is probably hoping to become the subject of a bidding war between two or more fight promotions, which is why he took the somewhat rare step of fighting out his UFC contract in the first place.

And, when you think about it, the fact that so few fighters do that, that’s weird. The way it usually works is, when a prominent fighter is down to the last couple fights of his current contract, UFC executives start working on a new one. And, usually, the fighter signs that new deal before ever seeing the end of the old one. You can go your whole career this way, at least until you’re eventually released. Plenty have.

Fighting out your contract is the only way to see what someone might pay for your services when the bidding is open to more than one potential buyer, but it also carries with it certain risks. For one thing, it usually involves turning the UFC down at least once or twice, which means tipping your hand in advance. And one way to lower a free-agent fighter’s asking price is to give him tough matchups that may send him onto the open market with a string of losses.

In that sense, Henderson’s gamble paid off uncommonly well. He goes into free agency on a two-fight winning streak, having reinvigorated himself as a welterweight after his career at lightweight hit a few painful hurdles.

Now he’s exactly the kind of fighter Bellator might want to scoop up. He can fight in two different weight classes, and compete with the best in the world in either division. At 32, he still has plenty of combat sports tomorrows in front of him, whether or not he chooses to use them all up. He can also still draw a little bit of a crowd, as evidenced by the fact that anyone at all was willing to wake up before dawn in many parts of North America to watch him on the UFC’s Fight Pass streaming service.

If you’re going to “test the market,” those are favorable circumstances under which to do it. Just don’t expect a guy like Henderson, who waffled between amusingly inscrutable and impossibly frustrating during his time as UFC champ, to give us any indication of what might be next.

If there’s a situation in which his natural tendencies might work in his economic favor, it’s this one. Even the closest reading of Henderson’s post-fight comments doesn’t tell us whether he intends to stay or go. It doesn’t even tell us whether he cares. When he admits that the “market” might take him elsewhere, but also guarantees “for sure” that he’ll retire in the UFC, it makes you wonder whether he might not be overestimating his ability to see into the future.

Negotiating with a man who keeps his cards close to the vest is one thing. Negotiating with Henderson, who raises questions with every answer he provides, is another.

But really, why should we have expected anything different? If his UFC tenure – the current one, anyway – really does end like this, it might be fitting. And if his own impenetrable exterior winds up getting him paid, whether to stay or go, that might be just about perfect.

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 79, check out the UFC Events section of the site.