With military service planned, 2017 could be Bellator 165 headliner Benson Henderson's final year

Bellator lightweight title challenger Benson Henderson turned 33 just two days shy of the 10-year anniversary of his first professional MMA fight.

This birthday is a little more significant than others. It’s a date tied to his longterm life plans.

Rather than slug it out for the Viacom-owned promotion until the wheels fall off, he plans to go out on his own terms. That means that, before he’s too old, he wants to serve his country.

This coming year could be the last MMA fans see Henderson (24-6 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) grace the cage, if he holds to a timeline to retire at age 33.

“It’s looking that way,” he told MMAjunkie during a media call in support of his Spike-televised lightweight title fight against champ Michael Chandler (15-3 MMA, 12-3 BMMA) at Bellator 165, which takes place Friday at SAP Center in San Jose, Calif. “We’ll see how it all plays out, but I do want to retire when I’m somewhat younger and be able to speak coherently to my grandchildren. The other thing was enlisting into military of some sort.”

Henderson isn’t particularly picky about what branch he joins. He also doesn’t seem to care about what he does, only that he gives fully of himself for a greater good. It’s a priority he thinks is dreadfully unappreciated by people today.

“I think serving is a lost art,” said Henderson, who meets the No. 15 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings. “I think seriously we are lost today – our society, our country. Something is wrong with us. We are jacked up in the head.

“We celebrate morons who are solely focused on social media, and when I raise my kids, I want to stress to them the importance of doing real stuff for our country. Being a good person. That would be me going out of my way to do something for my country and raise my kids and say, hey, look at this. Here’s something I did for this country.”

The 33-year cutoff arrived as the result of age requirements for certain branches of service. There are other considerations, as well. If he wants to join the Marines, for example, he must get his hand tattoo cleared before he is allowed to join.

All that could take time, so he’s got to start the process before it’s too late. But it doesn’t matter to him whether he’s working in a kitchen on a military base or fighting a war on the front lines; he just wants to go.

“I’d do whatever,” he said. “If it was cleaning the window, but I’m cleaning the window for my country, sure, no problem. It would be kind of boring and sucky, but I’m a humble man. If it happens to be something on the front lines, that’s not ideal, but I’m cool with that, as well.”

It’s hard to imagine the former UFC champ would be like any other civilian who walks into a recruitment office. The UFC and Bellator do extensive military outreach and broadcast fights on the Armed Forces Network. In all likelihood, thousands upon thousands of active-duty soldiers have watched him fight.

Then there’s the fact that Henderson’s expertise in fighting would make him a valuable resource to other soldiers. It would seem he has options.

Where he ends up, though, is a decision that he plans to make in the near future. His mind is made up that he’s going. He didn’t tell Bellator that when he defected from the UFC and signed with the industry’s No. 2 promotion. There wasn’t any discussion to be had.

“This is my own personal thing that I’ve wanted to do for years now,” Henderson said. “Hopefully, before I get too old and they say no to me outright, I can do that.”

For more on Bellator 165, check out the MMA Rumors section of MMAjunkie.