Henderson's UFC defection makes sense for all, but also nudges the fighter economy

Shortly after he’d been announced the winner over Jorge Masvidal via split-decision at UFC Fight Night 79 this past November, former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson looked into the camera, took off his gloves, then set them down in the octagon.

That seemed like a pretty clear indication of where he thought his career was headed. On Monday, the speculation solidified into fact. Henderson tested the free agent market, just as he said he would, then signed with Bellator MMA after the UFC declined to match the offer.

It’s a big move for the toothpick-loving former champ, and a good addition to the increasingly robust Bellator roster. Maybe most importantly, it’s one more nudge for the slowly shifting fighter economy.

What makes it seem most like a sign of the times it’s just how much sense this move makes for all parties involved.

Henderson? By the time he wrapped up his UFC contract he was a former champ with no clear path back to the title. He had losses to the current titleholder and to the champ who came before him. He was almost always a headliner, though increasingly on cable TV fight cards. If he got to feeling like he was treading water, could anyone really blame him?

Then there’s the UFC. While Zuffa executives had to like Henderson’s ability to fight well in two different weight classes, as well as the go-get-em attitude he adopted after the lone two-fight losing streak of his career, they also probably felt like he was more past than future. He wasn’t a blockbuster of a champ even when he had the belt. Why shell out big money to keep him when the lightweight division’s current problem is choosing which mega fight to make first?

Lastly, there’s Bellator. The sport’s second-place promotion has spent much of the last year and a half building buzz around fights and fighters that we almost have to hate ourselves for being so interested in. If they were MMA famous in 2005, chances are they showed up in Bellator in 2015. That strategy generated some real interest. It just didn’t do much to lay the groundwork for long-term success.

What Bellator needs now are relevant, name brand fighters who aren’t rocketing through the downslope of their careers. Those fighters are, for the most part, in the UFC, which means you need fighters who are willing to take a risk and fight their way to free agency.

That’s not as easy as it sounds, thanks to the UFC’s habit of signing fighters to new contracts before they finish current ones. In order to get to the point where he can even talk dollar figures with a competing promotion, a fighter has to tell the UFC no and risk the potential matchmaking wrath that could follow.

That’s the logical side of it. But there’s also the other part, the psychological part, the voice in a fighter’s head telling him that the UFC is the only place to be. For a lot of fighters, heading to Bellator – or anywhere else, for that matter – has historically felt like being sent down to the minors. That’s probably because of how often it looked that way from afar, with fighters making the jump only after they’d run out of other options in the big show.

That’s where Henderson’s situation is different. He’s not slipping out of the UFC on a losing skid. He won his last two fights, and arguably gained more respect from hardcore fans without the belt than he ever had with it. He’s still young enough to have a whole new career in Bellator, and he’ll be dropping into a division where real, meaningful fights can be made outside the UFC.

Henderson’s move doesn’t feel so much like the beginning of the end, like it did for some other fighters. Instead, it just seems like one more beginning.

It may be slight at first, but stuff like that has an impact on other fighters. So, too, does money. And from the sound of the things, Bellator was willing to cough up more of it for Henderson’s services than the UFC was.

That’s not to say that the floodgates are open. Bellator likely wouldn’t be interested in all potential UFC defections. It needs to beef up its roster, but it also needs to choose wisely if it doesn’t want to run into the same numbers crisis the UFC is constantly battling. And some of those whom Bellator might like to have are fighters the UFC might be more willing to pay to keep. In this way, a little extra bidding goes a long way toward increasing fighter pay.

Still, don’t think that moves like this don’t matter. Don’t think fighters don’t notice when one of their own – and one with real options to choose from – decides to test his worth and take his services elsewhere.

And if you see Henderson on a Spike TV broadcast soon, grinning that grin with a toothpick in his teeth, you better believe that at least a few of his peers will give some serious consideration to following the same playbook – wherever it leads.

For more on the UFC’s and Bellator’s upcoming schedules, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.