The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is unquestionably the pinnacle of the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) world. Nearly every notable fighter currently competing does so under the UFC banner. But if there are divisions where the UFC’s monopoly is arguably weakest, it is the lightweight and featherweight classes. As MMA’s deepest weight divisions, it is not surprising that some talents have managed to find work elsewhere. With names like Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler, Josh Thomson, Shinya Aoki, Paddy Pimblett, Daniel Strauss, Georgi Karakhanyan, Patricky Freire and Pat Curran all currently competing outside the UFC, if you want to watch high level MMA without going to the big leagues, you can’t do much better than these guys.There are two names conspicuously absent from this list, and it is arguable I saved the best for last. This week at Bellator 160 Benson ‘Smooth’ Henderson and Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire face off in a cross divisional super-fight to decide who fights lightweight champ Michael Chandler. It is so rare these days that you get to see top tier fighters compete outside the UFC, but this fight is just that. If you aren’t excited to see this fight, you haven’t been paying attention.
If you aren’t excited to see this Bellator 160 main event, you haven’t been paying attention.
Benson Henderson: Smooth as Silk, Tough as Nails
Henderson may just be the best fighter outside the UFC. With wins over Jim Miller, Jamie Varner, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Clay Guida, Nate Diaz and two wins over Cowboy Cerrone and Frankie Edgar, Henderson has a record that reads better than anyone else on paper. Bellator 160 will mark Henderson’s lightweight debut in Bellator, having had one fight at welterweight previously.
The main reason for his success is his well-roundedness. Wherever the fight goes, Henderson is comfortable, and that is a skill very few fighters have. He is not just good at striking, clinching, and grappling. He can fight on the lead or on the counter, on top or off his back, and he infuses every moment of the fight with a frenetic pace. His cardio is outstanding and while he isn’t a knockout puncher per say, he knows how to hit with power. There really isn’t a single area you can point to in Henderson’s game as his weak spot.
Henderson’s Striking:
On the feet Henderson is a man with a lot of tools, but not a lot of science. Much more of a gritty striker than a technician, his favorites include the left straight/right hook combination and his leg kicks. His punching style has never been that technical, in fact he usually leads his his face. This is because Henderson is all about creating pressure. Once he lands his punches he is instantly in on a clinch and pushing his man to the fence. Here he can flatten them out and take away their power before either initiating a takedown or starting an exchange, where his left straight/ right hook combo will enter through the center and around the guard, normally meaning he will catch at least one punch clean, sometimes two.
Henderson’s leg kicks are really place holders. They serve to get his opponent thinking about checking the kick as he prepares to shoot a takedown. For a man who thrives on pressure, Henderson spends a lot of time out in the open. This is because rushing in with punches behind your face is a risky business, so while he waits for his opportunity to strike Henderson punctuates his inactivity with naked leg kicks. If his opponent backs away from his punches, Henderson will happily chop away at their lead leg as they leave his range.
Ironically for a pressure fighter, Henderson doesn’t take a ton of damage. This is because whenever his opponent attacks, he retreats. He only engages on his terms, and if his opponent wants to force the issue, he will shoot on them.
Henderson’s Grappling
On the ground is where Henderson does his best work. While his submission defense is well known (if you want to be amazed, watch the opening two minutes of his first fight with “Cowboy” on YouTube), it is his positional awareness that really makes him a threat on the mat. Unlike most top grapplers in this day and age, Henderson doesn’t really put much of a focus on passing. Instead he gets to guard, stands up tall, and pounds away.
This stacked guard position is great for avoiding an opponents guard game. The idea is to force his opponent to turn, then take advantage. Henderson as a scrambler is pretty hard to beat. So often in his career he turns bad positions into advantageous ones, and if there is a scramble, he often ends up on top.
All of Henderson’s game is predicated on his ability to push a pace his opponent cannot handle. Even when his opponent starts strong, Henderson doggedly plugs away and once they slow down, he starts to take advantage. Nothing better sums up all things Henderson than his finish of Rustam Khabilov. Right hand to left straight into a clinch, scramble straight to back into a submission. Constant forward motion, constant pressure, and a seamless transition from striking to grappling.
Patricio Freire: A Pitbull by Nature, A Technician By Trade
While Patricio Freire normally plies his trade at 145 pounds, he has had tremendous success against some of the best featherweights outside the UFC. For anyone who follows the MMA world at large, the most interesting story line not owned by Zuffa has been the three way rivalry between Freire, Pat Curran, and Daniel Strauss, who have been passing the Bellator featherweight title around like a hot potato for the last three years. While Strauss is the current champ, it is Freire who is up in the rivalry by a margin of 2-1. In moving up to 155 for a fight with former UFC champ Henderson, Freire hopes to draw more eyes to himself, and to be frank he deserves them.
The Brothers Pitbull: Patricio Vs Patricky
There are many comparisons to make between Patricio and his older brother, Patricky. In my opinion Patricio is the much more polished of the two. While Patricky throws wide, arcing hooks and flying knees, Patricio has shown some moments of true class in the cage. For all those movement fans, here’s a right hand into a weave around his opponents back, followed by a left hook which catches him as he resets to the new angle. This is the kind of stuff you should show people who think footwork is just about moving in and out, and has no offensive applications.
Freire’s Striking
As a Muay Thai combination striker, Freire subscribes heavily to the dutch style of Thai boxing: namely a heavy focus on hand combinations punctuated by hard leg kicks as they retreat.
This style convinces Freire’s opponents to not give ground to him, least their leg get tenderized. Worse, it encourages them to press forward recklessly to close the distance. This opens them up to Pitbull’s right hand. Freire has punching power disproportionate to his size, and he is excellent at timing the right hand. He will use it either as a cross counter over an opponents jab, or by using the left hook to line it up. This is similar to current UFC heavyweight and former K-1 Grand Prix winner Mark Hunt.
Freire likes to punish those who rush in on him with a check left hook. This also serves to line up his right hand if blocked. This left hook is nothing like the wild, crazy swing of his brother. He keeps it tight and doesn’t load up, the power coming from his opponents forward momentum.
Between the cross counter over his opponents jab and the check hook when they rush in, Freire is very good at discouraging people from coming after him, which is what sets up his combinations in to low kicks.
Issues with Feints
Where this style runs in to problems is when people feint at him. Because Freire is constantly on a hair trigger looking to counter, feinting makes him swing at air. After a round or two of this, he will either have gassed out or given up counter punching. This is when his wide guard can get him in to trouble, as it allows straight punches to land right down the middle. In particular the left straight, which is a favorite of Henderson.
However striking is not his only weapon.
Freire’s Grappling
While he would definitely want to avoid the ground game with the much bigger wrestler in Henderson, Freire is no slouch in the scrambling department. In a fight where he was being thoroughly outstruck by Daniel Strauss, Freire managed to turn a kimura attempt by Strauss into an opportunity to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Keys To Victory:
The counter punching of Freire has always been what makes him dangerous. While his older brother Patricky hits just as hard, he has much less craft on the feet. Patricio has his wild moments. He can get aggressive and throws with his hands by his chest. But he has shown some lovely technical moments too. His counter left hook would be a perfect technique to counter Henderson’s rushes, and his combinations to leg kicks would work perfectly to punish Henderson for retreating from exchanges.
As the bigger, longer, heavier man, Henderson has a few choices. Rushing in behind his face on the way to the clinch is dangerous, but against Pitbull it may be the best way to impose his size. As a striker Henderson is much less nuanced than Pitbull, but as an athlete he sets a pace few can keep up with. Freire has shown a tendency to fade in the later rounds, so some grinding fence work would do wonders for Henderson’s chance at a win.
On the feet Henderson’s left straight will be his best friend, as there has always been a home for it in Freire’s guard, but he will have to avoid the counters. Some feints would be great to see, and they would make his job on the feet a lot easier, but Henderson’s striking has always been a means to get to the clinch, then to the floor, so it may be asking a bit too much of him to start adding to it now.
Final Thoughts:
There aren’t many who give Freire a fair chance in this fight, and you can see why. Compared to Henderson, who is a massive lightweight, Freire will be severely outsized. A weight advantage like that will only compound Henderson’s grappling skills.
But Freire has a shot, and it lies not in his knockout power, but his skills on the feet. As the more technical striker, Freire can absolutely win this fight if he can keep it on the feet. Whoever wins, it is bound to be one exciting fight. The winner of this fight at Bellator 160 will face Michael Chandler for the Bellator lightweight title. This gives me high hopes for MMA outside the UFC in the near future. In an era where the UFC has dominated the sport so completely, that is more valuable than you might think.
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