Benson Henderson

Benson Henderson (born November 16, 1983) is an American former professional mixed martial artist, who most recently competed in the Lightweight division for Bellator MMA.

He is a former UFC Lightweight Champion and WEC Lightweight Champion.

He is considered one of the greatest lightweight MMA fighters of all time and is tied with BJ Penn for most UFC lightweight title defences.

Henderson was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado to a Korean mother and an African American father.

Benson has an older brother, Julius, who was born in Korea.

He was raised in Federal Way, Washington.

When Henderson was approximately 9 years old, his mother, Song, insisted that he take Tae Kwon Do lessons with his brother.

"She's Korean, I'm half-Korean, and it's the traditional Korean martial art, so she wanted us to do that to get a little bit of the culture and tradition," he says.

Both Benson and his brother attained black belts in Tae Kwon Do.

He attended Decatur High School from 1998 to 2001.

Benson became a part of the high school's wrestling team.

After graduating from high school, he attended Dana College in Blair, Nebraska and graduated in 2006 with a double major in criminal justice and sociology.

While attending Dana College, Henderson was on the wrestling team, and was twice named an NAIA All-American.

"I don't drink—I've never had a sip of alcohol. I've never had a puff of a cigarette or weed or anything like that. Growing up in Tacoma, that wasn't a very popular choice. I made a decision, and whenever it came up, I passed the dutchie to the left hand side ... People have seen that. They see I don't do the club scene. By people seeing that, that affects them in a bigger way than me talking about it."

Henderson turned professional in 2006, winning his first match against Dan Gregary.

He lost his third fight to Rocky Johnson via technical submission.

However, this defeat was a minor setback.

He rebounded with four straight wins before facing his toughest fight yet, against a UFC veteran, Diego Saraiva.

Henderson came prepared as he dominated Saraiva for three rounds, winning a unanimous decision and his 7th professional win.

Three months later, Henderson made his World Extreme Cagefighting debut on January 25, 2009, at WEC 38 against Anthony Njokuani.

Henderson defeated Njokuani with a guillotine choke early in round two.

Henderson faced Shane Roller on April 5, 2009, at WEC 40.

Henderson won the bout via first-round TKO.

Henderson was given an opportunity to fight for the Interim WEC Lightweight Championship against Donald Cerrone when lightweight champion Jamie Varner was unable to defend his title due to an injury.

The fight took place on October 10, 2009, at WEC 43.

Henderson won an exciting back-and-forth fight by unanimous decision.

Both Henderson and Cerrone were awarded with an additional purse of $20,000 for Fight of the Night.

The bout was also awarded 2009 Fight of the Year for all of MMA by Sherdog.com

Henderson faced Jamie Varner to unify the WEC Lightweight Championship at WEC 46 on January 10, 2010.

After being outboxed and outwrestled in the first two rounds, Henderson came back and caught Varner in a standing guillotine choke ending the fight at 2:41 of the third round.

Henderson had his first title defense in a rematch with Donald Cerrone on April 24, 2010, at WEC 48.

defeating Cerrone via guillotine choke in the first round.

The win earned him a Submission of the Night bonus award.

Henderson faced Anthony Pettis on December 16, 2010, at WEC 53.

Henderson lost his title by unanimous decision.

The fight won Fight of the Night honors.

In October 2010, World Extreme Cagefighting merged with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

As part of the merger, all WEC fighters were transferred to the UFC.

Henderson made his UFC debut at UFC 129 on April 30, 2011, where he faced Mark Bocek.

Henderson won the fight via unanimous decision.