Ben Henderson: "I was never asked or even told I was fighting Cowboy."

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"I didn't hear about it from the UFC at all. No one officially called me or called my manager or my coach. No one consulted with us or asked us if we would take the fight first," Henderson revealed when speaking with FOX Sports.

"It was actually Cowboy who texted me first saying 'hey bro, nothing personal, it's just business, nothing but love' and I said 'oh cool'. I had no idea what he was talking about. I go on Twitter and look it up and go 'oh I see, Eddie Alvarez just got hurt'. So I said 'see you in Boston in a couple of weeks'."

"That's how I found out. Any time, anywhere, anybody in the 155-pound division, let's do it. I'll fight anybody tomorrow. Five round fight? Let's do it. I'll fight anybody. Cowboy on two weeks notice? No problem," Henderson said. "I was a little surprised of the process and how it went down and how I found out. I wasn't asked or anything, but it is what it is. I like to roll with the punches."

"I leave that up for you to say. I'm not the writer or the pundit, who am I to say? I will say yes, Cowboy's on a six fight win streak and I'm off a loss. They are throwing his name up there a lot for a title shot, so after I beat him I plan on being right back up there," Henderson said. "Being the former champ, and after putting an exclamation point by beating Cowboy I plan on being right back there."

Also, states he's changed his plans on moving up to 170.

"I've always been pretty adamant about fighting at 155. I do like fighting at lightweight. It does suck getting down, I don't enjoy the process of getting down in weight. The older I get the harder it is to get the weight off and I entertain the idea of moving up," Henderson explained.

"But I want to get that belt back around my waist. I want that 155-pound belt back around my waist. Let me do that first, get that belt around my waist, beat up on (Anthony) Pettis and then we'll talk about 170."

"I've had a pretty decent run in my career. If I was done right now, I'd say cool, I feel complete, I'm happy. I've done some things, I've accomplished some things. But do I want to beat up Pettis? Do I want that belt back? Absolutely," Henderson said.
"It doesn't matter who I'm fighting. It doesn't matter if I've fought them twice before and beat them twice before. Whatever the circumstances are, so for me a fight's a fight. I don't care who it is. Set it up, let's go. My motivation is I'm a fighter, it's what I do."

http://www.foxsports.com/ufc/story/...boy-cerrone-011315?cmpid=tsmtw:fscom:ufconfox
 
Cowboy tells you when you are fighting him...you don't tell Cowboy.
 
wow thats actually pretty amateur of UFC lol.
 
Nothing surprising here. But he faces it the proper way, war Bendo. War Cowboy too, and fuck Dana and crew.
 
I don't understand how that's even possible. I'm a big fan of Dana White and I've been called a "Zuffa zombie" a couple of times here, but that's just unprofessional.
 
How hard is it to call the guys manager and say Eddie is out and Cowboy is in?

its one thing if news leaks before you announce it and you havent gotten around to letting Bendo know but when you put it out and still never even make contact with him to tell him its been changed thats fucked up.

Same with guys getting cut. Its not really that hard to give a manager a call, you'd think UFC would know this.
 
They probably suspected Bendo would agree, and used this technique for manipulation in case he had reservations. It would look really bad if the fight was announced and Bendo said no after the fact, so they manipulated while stroking his ego a bit and saying

"We knew you'd say yes so we went ahead and announced it".

Classic employer manipulation.
 
Also thats Joe Silva's job not dana's so not sure why anyone would say fuck Dana for this. But then again Dana gets shit on for everything.
 
Maybe he didn't get the memo.
tpsreports-300x215.jpg

Lumbergh will be by later to drop off a copy of it mmmmkay.
 
Cerrone should've kept his mouth shut and just turn up at staredown...surprise motherfucker :icon_chee

Seriously this is a joke and sign of disrespect towards Bendo. Nobody even asked him if he wants to take this fight. Laughable
 
Everything the UFC does is unprofessional and immature.

We all know this by now. At the end of the day, who cares. The fighters don't care how you are treated at work, so we shouldn't care how they are treated.

If they wanted things to change, they would change.

Just fight and shut it.
 
They've been doing this for years now. Iirc they tried to save UFC 151 by plugging Machida in without notifying Machida
 
UFC is very shady in the way they handle their business sometimes.. I like what cowboy said to bendo tho, very cool
 
I think this is a larger lesson in life and business. When you are as nice as Bendo and are always willing to play ball people just stop asking for your consent and assume you'll go along with whatever plans they've drawn up for you. The UFC wouldn't pull this shit with Jones because they know he's only looking out for himself (as we all should) and they know he would let the company collapse before putting himself at too great a risk.

In the end Bendo has to learn from this and start sticking for himself. He should have said "I would've fought Cowboy if you asked me to, but since you thought I wasn't important enough to ask I'm not fighting him". Or he should use this as a situation to get paid more. As a matter of fact if the UfC was anything resembling a fair company they would voluntarily give Bendo a nice bonus.
 
If Jon Jones was offered Cerrone on a two week notice, Jones (on the advice of Greg Jackson), would decline the fight saying not enough time to prepare for a lightweight contender, maybe a flyweight, but not a dangerous lightweight.
 
They probably suspected Bendo would agree, and used this technique for manipulation in case he had reservations. It would look really bad if the fight was announced and Bendo said no after the fact, so they manipulated while stroking his ego a bit and saying

"We knew you'd say yes so we went ahead and announced it".

Classic employer manipulation.

It would make the UFC look bad if they announced the fight and bendo came out and said no one told me about that change I don't want to fight cowboy again.
 
This sounds like something PRIDE or Japanese MMA promoters would do. Not telling you who you're fighting until 1 or 2 weeks from the fight, switching things around. Completely unprofessional.
 
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