Bellator 196 main-event breakdown: Can Benson Henderson return to championship form?

MMAjunkie Radio cohost and MMAjunkie contributor Dan Tom provides an in-depth breakdown of all of Bellator’s top bouts. Today, we look at Bellator 196’s main event.

Bellator 196 takes place Friday at BOK Hall in Budapest, Hungary, and it airs on Paramount via same-day delay.

Benson Henderson (24-8 MMA, 1-3 BMMA)

Benson Henderson

Staple info:

• Height: 5’9? Age: 34 Weight: 155 lbs. Reach: 71?
• Last fight: Decision loss to Patricky Freira (Sept. 23, 2017)
• Camp: MMA Lab (Arizona)
• Stance/striking style: Southpaw/kickboxing
• Risk management: Good

Supplemental info:
+ Former UFC and WEC lighweight champion
+ Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt
+ Tae kwon do black belt
+ 2x NAIA All-American wrestler
+ 5 KO victories
+ 8 submission wins
+ 6 first-round finishes
+ Consistent pace and pressure
+ Manages distance well
+ Excellent leg dexterity
^ Dynamic kicking attack
+ Busy inside of the clinch
+ Solid wrestling ability
+ Superb transitional grappler
^ Good scrambler/positionally aware

Roger Huerta (24-9-1 MMA, 1-2 BMMA)

Staple info:

• Height: 5’9? Age: 34 Weight: 155 lbs. Reach: N/A”
• Last fight: Disqualification win over Hayder Hassan (Dec. 22, 2017)
• Camp: Unbreakable Performance Center (California)
• Stance/striking style: Switch-stance/muay Thai
• Risk management: Fair

Supplemental info:
+ Wrestling base
+ Bellator Season 2 tournament veteran
+ SuperBrawl 36 tournament veteran
+ ISKA welterweight and lightweigh titles
+ 12 KO victories
+ 5 submission wins
+ 7 first-round finishes
+ Aggressive pace and pressure
+ Solid muay Thai technique
^ Often attacks in combination
+ Hard kicks from both stances
+ Strong inside the clinch
+ Underrated wrestling ability
^ Superb scrambler
+ Excellent submission defense

Summary:

With the original headliner between James Gallagher and Adam Borics beings scrapped due to injury, the main event for Bellator 196 will now feature a fun matchup between lightweight staples Benson Henderson and Roger Huerta.

A former WEC and UFC titleholder whose gone 1-3 under the Bellator banner, Henderson will be looking bounce back in emphatic fashion when he steps into Budapest, Hungary. Meeting Henderson inside of the cage will be Huerta, a familiar face to MMA audiences worldwide.

Starting off on the feet, we have a matchup that pits a stick-and-move stylist against a relentless pressure-fighter.

Henderson, the southpaw, does well with managing distance, further fueling his stick-and-move sensibilities. Whether he is utilizing his brand of oblique kicks or stifling forward motion with sidekicks, the former champion’s leg dexterity serves him well.

Working behind fakes and feints, Henderson wields an accurate left-hand that he variates nicely to the head and body. Using it to get off at an advantageous angle, Henderson will often follow up with hard hooks and kicks and punctuate his presence.

Still, Henderson has traditionally found himself in close contests due to his, at times, lack volume and aggression – tendencies that are not shared by his opponent.

Enter Huerta, a fighter who has ironically played the bull more than the matador throughout his career.

Coming from a wrestling base as well as a brief run with ISKA karate organization, Huerta stormed the scene with a brawling style that mixed in hard, thudding kicks that were captured nicely on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.

Cleaning up his technique toward the end of his UFC run, we saw Huerta adopt a more muay Thai-centric style by the time of his first Bellator appearance and onward. With his aggression remaining intact, Huerta tightened up the technique on his kicks and punches, switching stances with much more of a purpose.

Huerta has spent the last six years of his career competing for ONE Championship, where he seemingly had murky run with an inconsistent 3-3 showing. And though Huerta’s striking showed noted improvements, his willingness to trade got him further and further away from his wrestling, a staple for his early success in the sport.

If Huerta reignites that part of his game, then he could increase his chances to win on paper. Despite Henderson being a talented wrestler within the MMA space, he has traditionally struggled with pressure-fighters who can hold their own in the wrestling department.

Given that potential factor, I believe that the clinch will serve as the key juncture in this fight.

Both men are traditionally comfortable here, but they employ two different games. Huerta, who used to use this space to look for takedowns and dirty box, will now keep more of a Thai-style agenda at play. Whereas Henderson, an excellent takedown artist, will use everything from no-look elbows to creative leg attacks in a synchronistic fashion, a facet of his game that I find most impressive.

Regardless of who achieves the takedowns, I can’t be confident that ground stanzas will last long considering each fighter’s ability to create scrambles and defend submissions. That said, I expect Henderson to be a step ahead in exchanges as the better ground fighter on paper, something that I think will translate here.

Currently, there are no odds listed for this matchup.

Despite Henderson’s recent run of losses, the inconsistent fight schedule of Huerta (fighting once in the last 17 months) will likely have the oddsmakers opening this line with roughly a 3-1 ratio in either direction, favoring Henderson.

Henderson’s style may still allow for frustratingly close fights, but this is a spot where the former champion should be able to step up to the plate in a stylistic sense. Although Huerta is aggressive, he, too, also needs some time to build his rhythm. So, if Huerta fails to hurt Henderson early, then I see the former lightweight king dictating the terms of this fight with his grappling presence, possibly earning a late stoppage en route to a dominant decision.

Official pick: Henderson by decision

For more on Bellator 196, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.