Ben Henderson officially completed his last fight of his eight-bout contract with the UFC and now it remains to be seen if the ex-lightweight champion will stay put or move on to other opportunities in the market.
Though he did say that he will retire in the UFC, his plans after UFC Fight Night 79 don’t really offer much of an assurance that he would sign up for another run.
Henderson defeated Jorge Masvidal at UFC Fight Night 79 over in Seoul, South Korea but the post-game activities were much more interesting than the culminating fight of his contract under the UFC umbrella according to Yahoo Sports.
After his win, Henderson was seen taking off his gloves and setting them down on the canvass. Such a practice indicates that a fighter is done competing.
He would however later on say on camera: “Was that impressive enough for you?” before eventually picking up his gloves and walking out from the Octagon.
Now his remarks do keep a lot of people thinking. Is Henderson heading somewhere else?
“I’m not trying to send any message of any type, but if it plays out a certain way, I want to have some pretty good memories to go out on,” he said via MMAJunkie.com.
Though he left no indication on what would be up next for him, the answer to such could very well lie on contract negotiations that are expected to follow soon.
If ever he does have plans to join other arms like Bellator or ONE Championship, it may all follow if Henderson and the UFC are unable to strike a deal in the next 90 days.
The UFC normally follows a 90-day negotiating window so whatever Henderson plans to do from here would likely be swayed by how he and the UFC are able to negotiate a new pact.
At Bellator, Henderson could follow the footsteps of Phil Davis, Josh Thomson, and Josh Koscheck who are all doing great over there.
If not Bellator, ONE Championship could be another stop where a match with champion Ben Askren could be something worth seeing. And on that possibility, it seems that Askren is leading the party in lobbying for Henderson to come onboard.
Whatever lies ahead for Henderson, the UFC will still have first crack with the final word obviously up to him. But as state earlier any plans outside the UFC (if any) can only materialize once the UFC is done offering its piece.