Where is the love?

LOS ANGELES -- For two guys on nice winning streaks and likely a win away from a lightweight title shot, Ben Henderson and Clay Guida aren't exactly giving each other a ton of respect.

The two co-main event fighters for Saturday's UFC on FOX debut (which is odd to say since their fight is technically on the undercard of the one-hour televised special) were speaking confidently about their chances on Thursday afternoon.

Asked whether he thinks Henderson is his biggest challenge to date, Clay Guida (29-11) gave an honest answer, and not your typical "politically correct" one.

"I believe I've beaten better opponents and lost to better opponents," Guida said. "But he's very determined … I'm getting my shot no matter what so I'm going out there gunslinging and I'm going to show the UFC and the rest of the world I'm the No. 1 contender."

Henderson (14-2) meanwhile wasn't quite as direct. But he was just as blunt.

"That's the thing about losses, unless it's a fluke knockout or a fluke submission … when you look at those losses, those are blueprints, those are game plans on how to beat the guy. Clay having quite a few losses, there's a lot of blueprints to choose from," Henderson said. "Do I want to beat him doing this or this or this? It's a matter of sticking to the game plan and working at that game plan, and being able to do what the other opponent did to Clay Guida."

He'll have to go back a ways to find one of those blueprints. Guida hasn't lost in nearly two years, getting choked out by former No. 1 contender Kenny Florian in December 2009. Prior to that, he dropped a split decision in June '09 to Diego Sanchez in what was deemed fight of the year.

Known for being one of the most energetic and exciting fighters, Guida's stock has risen even more with his current four-fight win streak, the longest since joining the UFC in 2006. He's coming off a decision win over former WEC champion Anthony Pettis, which cost the latter a UFC title shot. While it hasn't been officially announced, it is widely expected that the next shot at Frankie Edgar's belt will go to the winner of Saturday's fight at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Henderson has climbed the ladder quite quickly himself. He's currently on a two-fight win streak in the Octagon after losing his WEC title to Pettis (by virtue of the famous off-the-cage kick in the fifth round of a very close fight on the last card before the WEC was absorbed by the UFC.)

He's fresh off an eye-opening unanimous-decision win over Jim Miller, who many were considering in line for the next title shot, in which the talented wrestler basically controlled all of the action. With that, he started to get a lot more attention.

Add the fact that he was one of the winners of the UFC's first social media incentive bonus for the "most creative" tweets, and Henderson said he thinks it's a sign of the popularity he's gained since coming over to the UFC. But Henderson, who has over 20,000 Twitter followers, gave a lot of the credit for that to the fans.

"I wasn't really intending on trying to win it, but I do like interacting with fans," Henderson said. "I'm definitely biased but I definitely think MMA has some of the best, most hardcore, awesome fans around and to be able to interact with them and tweet back and forth with some of the fans is pretty cool."

Unfortunately, despite the added recognition -- and the fact that his fight vs. Clay Guida could easily end up being even more thrilling than the main event between heavyweight sluggers Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos -- that still wasn't enough to get it on the television card.

A de facto No. 1 contender bout not even appearing on live TV? That's somewhat unheard of.

There are reasons why not -- FOX and the UFC are targeting all their promotion onto strictly the heavyweight championship bout for business purposes as it tries to expose a brand new audience who would only tune in to this because it's on network TV. But when the "co-main event" fighters arrive at the press conference Wednesday as scheduled, only to have their chairs removed from the stage so they're left to join the rest of the spectators, it's hard for them not to feel a little disrespected.

Henderson, though, refused to speak any ill-will towards the brass.

"If it is at all frustrating, I'm going to let the frustrations out inside the Octagon," Henderson said with a smile.

In fact, he has no problem being on the undercard of the historic first UFC show on FOX, because he believes he will one day be headlining one. Sooner, rather than later.

"The day's going to come," Henderson said. "Give me another year. You'll see."

Guida also feels there's no reason to be discouraged.

"I wouldn't say it's a disappointment, it motivates me even more," Guida said. "And I know if it was in Dana White's power and Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank (Fertitta) and Joe (Silva) they would definitely broadcast that fight, so I know it's out of their hands, it's the network.

"And nothing against (FOX), I'm glad that they picked us up before anyone else did and I know this is a historic event and I'm very excited to be a part of it."

He also said he feels like things have full circle for him.

"I was fighting on the undercard five years ago on UFC 64 and now fighting on the biggest stage yet, UFC on FOX," Guida said. "So five years later, I'm on the undercard again in the co-main event in the biggest fight of my life. I'm very humbled by this and even more determined now than I was five years ago."

NOTES: Later, Guida shared some of the fighters he's beaten whom he thinks are better than Henderson. "I think I've fought numerous opponents that were better. Nate Diaz is better on the ground, I believe (Takanori) Gomi is a more well rounded fighter and I caught him maybe on the end of his career. And I believe we have an up and comer in Rafael dos Anjos, who has great standup, great grappling, his ground game and we've seen his knockout power." … Henderson is a betting favourite in the fight. He admitted he didn't know that but isn't surprised. "That's cool, I'll take it. I don't bet, I don't gamble so I don't know the odds … Maybe I should be (surprised) but no, I'm as confident as any other fighter out there. All fighters are pretty confident by nature. It's how we are. You'd be wise to pick me against anybody."

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