Bellator's Benson Henderson explains uncharacteristic F-bomb 'outburst' on Twitter

When it comes to classy, respectful and humble MMA fighters, Benson Henderson has to be near the top of the list. Everyone has moments of breaking away from usual behavior, though, and Henderson recently had one of his own.

Henderson (24-7 MMA, 1-2 BMMA), who has not competed since a split-decision loss to Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler (16-3 MMA, 13-3 BMMA) at Bellator 165 in November, will be out for the majority of the year after recently undergoing major knee surgery. Recovery prevents him from maintaining his typically active schedule, and his desire to get back to competition recently became too much to bare.

That’s when Henderson made an uncharacteristic post on Twitter, where he put his fellow Bellator fighters “on notice.”

Henderson typically keeps to himself and does his talking inside the cage. However, as he explained in a recent interview with MMAjunkie, the frustration of sitting on the sidelines caused him to reach a limit. He needed an outlet, and social media provided one.

“It was an outburst,” Henderson said. “I feel I’m too composed for such outbursts. It is what it is. I’m not going to apologize, but I don’t think I’ll have any more outbursts like that. I don’t plan on it anyway.”

Henderson has been injured before and said he can deal with the cutting back on training or, at worst, staying out of the gym entirely. However, his feelings have been somewhat compacted by routine attendance at major events to corner his teammates from The MMA Lab.

In recent years Henderson has become one of the lead cornermen for his team. Bryan Barberena and Scott Holtzman both picked up victories at UFC Fight Night 108 this past month with “Smooth” in the corner. Henderson admitted being in the environment of an MMA event but without the possibility of participating tugged at his emotions.

“What’s the old cliche? You never know what you have until it’s gone? I took so much of it as luxury that I didn’t appreciate, just being able to train,” Henderson said. “Being 100 percent healthy, I took it so much as a luxury. I get fired up sometimes, but I finally had enough. I had surgery (in December). It’s been however long now with me not being able to train and having to go corner guys for this fight or that fight, going to all these UFC and Bellator events. I get frustrated, and you have to vent your frustration somehow. Twitter is a good way for me to vent my frustration.”

What’s made matters worse is how Henderson has been forced to sit on what he views as one of the more agonizing fight outcomes of his career. Even dating back to his tenure as UFC and WEC lightweight champion, Henderson has been involved in numerous narrow and controversial decisions.

Henderson said he’s dissected the bout with Chandler more than any other he’s been involved with, and to this day, he’s confident it should have been scored in his favor.

“I don’t go back and look at most of my fights, whether I win or lose, because I was there and lived through it – I was the one who experienced it, and I know if I got my hand raised,” Henderson said. “After the third Donald Cerrone fight I did not go back and watch it. He knows what the real deal was, but the decision didn’t go my way. With Chandler, I’ve gone back and I’ve watched it 25, 30 times now. I’ve watched it a bunch. I definitely feel like I deserved to get my hand raised.”

Henderson said his goal is to return to Bellator and fight between July and September, depending on the speed of his recovery. Naturally Henderson wants a rematch with Chandler, but since he’s coming off a loss and has dropped two of his three Bellator fights overall, he knows that’s probably won’t happen next. Therefore, he said he would take any fight thrown his way as long as it puts him on the road to redemption.

“Whatever they come up with,” Henderson said. “Bellator has been keeping a close eye on my recovery and when I’ll be back and good to go and all that stuff.”

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