Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Lightweights

4. Benson Henderson

Henderson had an utterly unique style which, for a while in the late 2000s and early 2010s, was difficult for even the elite of the sport to solve. He was an outstanding grappler in terms of wrestling as well as BJJ, and when that was neutralized, he would stand back and land his fast, powerful, technical kicks while maintaining a solid defense. This was a style built to win decisions, and Henderson had many of them, including a slew that could have gone the other way. Henderson has a lot of big names on his ledger, including Donald Cerrone, Jim Miller, prime Clay Guida, Frankie Edgar twice, Nate Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson, Jorge Masvidal and Patricio Freire via injury, but a number of those listed likely should have been losses. It would take an entire article to run through all of them, but as early as his 2009 bout at WEC 43 against Cerrone and as recently as his split decision over Islam Mamedov in Bellator, he has been winning decisions that range from controversial, to bad, to outright robberies, a recent example of the latter being his fight with Adam Piccolotti, hardly an elite lightweight. Henderson won the UFC title in 2012 against Frankie Edgar in a very close fight, with a small majority favoring Henderson, then won the rematch via split decision in a fight almost everyone either scored for either Edgar or as a draw. He would lose the title a year later to Anthony Pettis, where luckily the judges weren't needed, as Pettis scored a first-round armbar. It should also be mentioned that Henderson exited the UFC at 32 years old on a two-fight winning streak, including a deserved split decision over Masvidal, and was expected to dominate the supposedly weaker Bellator, but instead found himself being the one dominated by fighters he was heavily favored against, including Patricky Freire, Andrey Koreshkov, and being decimated twice by Michael Chandler, once by first round knockout. Personally, I think it's ridiculous that Chandler isn't on this list, well ahead of Henderson, but that's the voting.

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