UFC’s Henderson might stay at welterweight after victory in Colorado
Benson Henderson, a former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champion, was insistent his move to welterweight was a temporary one to do a favor for his bosses when a replacement opponent was needed for a main event bout against Brandon Thatch on Saturday.
After an outstanding performance in a fourth-round submission of Thatch in Broomfield, Colo., Henderson has a decision to make.
He immediately called out top welterweight contender Rory MacDonald after the victory, though that possibility was shot down quickly by UFC president Dana White because MacDonald has a fight scheduled that has yet to be announced.
Still, Henderson felt good at the bigger weight.
“There’s something to not cutting down, not literally starving yourself to death,” Henderson said. “What we go through to get ourselves down to weight, if we had to continue for another three, four, five, six days, we’d probably do some massive damage to our bodies. We kill ourselves to make weight. Being able to stay at 170, I wanted to see how the performance was.”
He said he will evaluate his options going forward.
“We’ll see,” Henderson said. “So many times, it’s not truly up to us. A lot of it’s up to the big boss man up here. He says, ‘Hey, you should fight this guy.’ You either say yes, or you probably should say yes.”
Henderson wasn’t the only big winner Saturday.
Featherweight Max Holloway scored a unanimous decision over Cole Miller. It was the fifth straight win for Holloway, who was rewarded with a bout against contender Cub Swanson at UFC on Fox 15 on April 18 in New Jersey.
Also, Neil Magny submitted Kiichi Kunimoto in the third round of a welterweight bout.
■ BUSY COMMISSION MEETING TODAY — The recent wave of positive drug tests in mixed martial arts could lead to a crowded room at today’s Nevada Athletic Commission meeting.
Requests for temporary suspensions of Nick Diaz, Anderson Silva and Hector Lombard are on the agenda.
Silva defeated Diaz by unanimous decision in the main event of UFC 183 on Jan. 31 at the MGM Grand Garden. Diaz tested positive for marijuana metabolites in a post-fight drug screening. A test administered to Silva almost a month before the fight came back positive for steroids, though the results weren’t available until after the bout.
Lombard failed a post-fight drug test after a Jan. 3 win over Josh Burkman at UFC 182 because of the presence of a designer steroid in his system.
A disciplinary hearing against Ashlee Evans-Smith, who tested positive for a banned diuretic after a decision loss to Raquel Pennington at UFC 181 on Dec. 6, is also scheduled.
The meeting at the Grant Sawyer Building begins at 1 p.m.
■ UFC TO ADDRESS PED ISSUE — UFC executives plan to address the recent string of positive drug tests in the organization Wednesday.
White said he was particularly troubled when he learned Silva, a former middleweight champion, had tested positive for steroids.
“It screwed me up for a few days,” White told Fox Sports 1 on Saturday night. “I was messed up for a few days after that. I’ve been a huge Anderson Silva fan, too, but we’ll talk about that on Wednesday. We’ll address all the things that have happened lately and what we’re going to do and what’s going to happen from here on out.”
The announcement will be streamed live on ufc.com at 10 a.m.
■ MIR RETURNS TO ACTION — Las Vegan Frank Mir will look to end a four-fight losing streak when he meets Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva in the main event of UFC Fight Night 61 on Sunday in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Mir, a 35-year-old former heavyweight champion, last fought in a unanimous decision loss to Alistair Overeem on Feb. 1, 2014. His was coming off consecutive defeats to Junior dos Santos, Daniel Cormier and Josh Barnett.
The main card, which also features a lightweight bout between Michael Johnson and Edson Barboza, airs live on Fox Sports 1 (Cable 329) at 5 p.m., with the preliminary card at 3.
■ FABER-EDGAR BOUT SET — Former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar will fight former World Extreme Cagefighting featherweight champion Urijah Faber in the featherweight main event of the UFC’s first card in the Philippines on May 16.
Faber has been competing at bantamweight for four years but will return to 145 pounds for the bout. Edgar has won three straight fights since losing a decision against champion Jose Aldo in February 2013.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.
