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Benson Henderson Hoping To Return To Bellator In Late Summer

April 29, 2017 | Posted by Joseph Lee

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Benson Henderson said he’s hoping to return to Bellator MMA later in the summer following a knee injury he suffered before Bellator 153 in April 2016. At the time, he said he was suffering from a torn “ACL, MCL, two meniscus and a bunch of loose cartilage”. He finally decided to have surgery after a split decision loss to Michael Chandler at Bellator 165 in November. Here are highlights:

On when the injury happened: “(The injury occurred) about two months before the Andrey Koreshkov fight, actually, but I didn’t feel like it really affected my performance. I don’t make excuses. It didn’t affect any of my performances. I was able to be smart about it and train the way I wanted to for all my fights. But for the Chandler fight, it had got worse and worse and worse. Just gradually it got worse, and I wasn’t able to do certain things. (For) the Chandler fight, I didn’t have the training camp I wanted, and it became tougher for me to do the things I wanted to do. It become difficult for me to have the type of training camp I know I’m supposed to have. No excuses at all for whether I got my hand raised or whether I lost. But it became so hard and tough for me to maintain my output at such a high level, I knew it was time to have the surgery.”

On how Bellator helped him: “Bellator has full insurance the same as the UFC; it’s another great, top class organization. They flew me out to see a specialist in San Jose, and I told them I had to have it looked at. They results were what they were. It was five days or six days before Christmas. They took care of it, paid for my hotel. They took care of me about as good as you can. They took care of everything. On Christmas Day I went and had lunch with Scott Coker because I was stuck in San Jose. They flew out my wife and my son for the surgery also. They took us all out to go eat lunch together. That was super meaningful to me. Not just getting a free meal, but them spending their time on Christmas Day away from their families for me to go out and have lunch. To me that meant a lot. You can’t get your time back. Someone can buy you a free meal, but someone’s time on Christmas Day? Man, that showed me a lot about the organization and the character of Bellator and Scott Coker and those guys.”

On when he’ll be back: “My surgeon has said nine to 12 months because it wasn’t just the ACL; it was ACL, MCL and meniscus. Because it’s everything it was, he recommends a longer layoff so I can do my due diligence with the rehab and all that stuff. He says nine to 12 months, but I’m a little bit more optimistic than that with me being the fighter I am. I’m a little bit more risky, so we’ll see. I want to be in there before nine months. I had surgery on Dec. 19, so basically at the beginning of the year in January is when my rehab started. If I can make it back before the ninth of September – I don’t want to push it and be crazy, but late July, maybe August. I want to have that Adrian Peterson comeback.”

article topics :

Benson Henderson, Joseph Lee