Benson Henderson planning summer return following knee surgery

Former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson has been competing under the Bellator MMA banner for the past two years. Following a 2-fight win streak under the UFC banner in 2015, Henderson decided to test the free agency market, and ultimately opt to sign with Bellator MMA.

Henderson made his promotional debut under the Bellator MMA banner in 2016, where he fought Andrey Koreshkov for the Bellator MMA welterweight title. Henderson lost the fight via unanimous decision, before then bouncing back by picking up a TKO win over Patricio Freire at Bellator 160. Unfortunately for Henderson, he ended 2016 with a split decision loss to Michael Chandler for the Bellator lightweight title.

Interestingly enough, Benson Henderson has now revealed that he injured his knee before he made his Bellator MMA debut. With the injury now surgically fixed, Henderson is eyeing a summer return to the Bellator cage.

He spoke to MMAJunkie:

“(The injury occurred) about two months before the Andrey Koreshkov fight, actually, but I didn’t feel like it really affected my performance,” Henderson told MMAjunkie. “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.”

In regards to his return, Henderson stated:

“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.”

This article first appeared on www.BJPenn.com on 4/29/2017.