Smooth and confident

Although he didn’t mean to, Ben (Smooth) Henderson admitted to looking past Clay Guida on Saturday and eyeing a future matchup with UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.

But only a little bit.

“To be completely honest, I know I shouldn’t, you never want to look past an opponent, especially an opponent as dangerous as Clay Guida. But you start hearing rumours and of course, you always have your eye on the No. 1 guy. You have your eye on the belt,” Henderson said following his three-round decision win over Guida at last weekend’s UFC on FOX debut in Anaheim, Calif. “At some point in time I was hoping I’d get the chance to face him. So you could definitely say I was breaking down some film and watching him and seeing what I would do in this situation.”

Henderson got to that point thanks to a hard-fought win Saturday. It may not have been dominant (even though two judges scores of 30-27 might suggest that), but it was impressive and it earned him a shot at the belt in what will headline the UFC’s return to Japan on Feb. 26, 2012.

Saturday’s was a back-and-forth battle and the crowd was definitely more supportive of his opponent. On numerous occasions, the fans broke into a “Guida, Guida” chant. That may have been in part due to being more accustomed to the crazy-haired Guida, who has fought in the UFC for five years, than Henderson, a former WEC champion who has only fought three times in the Octagon since coming over.

Henderson also has a reputation of slowing the pace of a fight and leaning on his wrestling skills to win, as opposed to the “go-all-out” style of Guida, which is always accentuated by his curly locks flopping all over the place. Fans always enjoy seeing that energy, even if it’s not always an indication of who’s winning a fight.

There was very little lack of energy on Saturday.

The fight opened up with each fighter swinging away. Henderson connected and worked the fight alternately to the ground and to the fence, where he peppered Guida with knees from the clinch and immediate kicks whenever they separated.

There were exciting exchanges throughout the three rounds. At one point in the second, Guida hit Henderson with a spinning backfist, only to lose his balance and fall to ground, and Henderson quickly took advantage and got on top of him. Guida was able to get a guillotine and pull guard, but soon Henderson was able to get out, take his back and ended the round with a body triangle.

The two continued their action-packed pace right until the final minute, when another exhilarating exchange saw Henderson catch a Guida kick, take him down, move to side control and then apply another tight body triangle. This time Guida escaped and had an event tighter guillotine as the bout drew to a close.

According to statistics from FightMetric, Henderson outstruck Guida by well more than double (40 of 89 significant strike attempts for 45 per cent vs. 11 of 40 for 28 per cent.) Henderson’s total strike numbers were 102 of 158 compared to 35 of 65 for Guida. With each having two takedowns and only a handful of submission attempts, the striking edge easily earned Henderson the decision.

Henderson said he wasn’t really ever in danger of getting submitted.

“The choke was not quite there,” Henderson said. “It was tight, he was squeezing very tightly. He had a lot of muscle, a lot of torque on the squeeze. But as far as me going to sleep actually, the choke wasn’t there. It had the wrong angle … I was doing the right defence and turning my head the (right way).”

On the flipside, Henderson said he thought he came closer to pulling off a stoppage.

“As far as me ending Guida, I got very excited once I took his back and I had my body triangle on him, then I had his arm trapped,” Henderson said. “It was very tight, I thought I was going to get the finish … and I did NOT get the finish. I will change that.”

His explanation echoed some earlier comments suggesting he was not completely satisfied, despite earning a shot at UFC gold.

“Was I happy with my performance? No. I can do a lot better,” Henderson added. “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Henderson, who is one of the bigger and stronger fighters in the lightweight division, admitted to being as confident as any other fighter in the UFC. And he thinks his matchup with Edgar, who is a smaller-than-average 155-pounder, is a favourable one for him.

He just feels he has to do a little work between now and when they meet. And he needs to stick to his game plan better than he did against Guida.

“Clay drew me in and did a great job making it more of a brawl,” Henderson said. “But I wanted to be more precise, more technical.

“(For Edgar) I want to get as big as possible, bulk up a little bit and do a good job of cutting weight, do a good job of rehydrating and do very scientific job of that to be as big as possible, size wise, strength wise and use that to my advantage.”

And of course, in the leadup to his championship bout, he’ll have nothing to look past.

James is a writer, editor and MMA enthusiast. His nickname, "Big Game" was given to him in the tradition of former Laker James Worthy and current Rays pitcher James Shields.