Ben Henderson will be looking to solidify his spot in the upper echelon of UFC lightweights in his next bout following his intense performance last weekend at UFC on Versus 5 against Jim Miller and according to his manager Malki Kawa, a fight against Clay Guida could be just the right fight to put his client in title contention:
“He’s the number one contender in my opinion and there’s no way anyone is gonna tell me different. This guy is the number one contender, hands down. Right now Melvin (Guillard) is locked up in a fight with Joe Lauzon so Melvin right now is not even on my radar at this point. For me to think he has to beat Clay and Melvin to get to a title well, he just beat a guy who was on a seven fight win streak, who beat everyone they put in front of him, and who Dana White came out and said ‘if you win this fight you get a title shot.’ I think right now it’s the other way around. I think Clay and Melvin have to beat [Henderson] to get a title shot, not the other way around. Because of scheduling, Guida is the next fight on our radar … If [Ben is] not going to fight for the title in his next fight, then I’m gonna ask the UFC to give us ‘the’ guy to beat.”
“He’s the number one contender in my opinion and there’s no way anyone is gonna tell me different. This guy is the number one contender, hands down. Right now Melvin (Guillard) is locked up in a fight with Joe Lauzon so Melvin right now is not even on my radar at this point. For me to think he has to beat Clay and Melvin to get to a title well, he just beat a guy who was on a seven fight win streak, who beat everyone they put in front of him, and who Dana White came out and said ‘if you win this fight you get a title shot.’ I think right now it’s the other way around. I think Clay and Melvin have to beat [Henderson] to get a title shot, not the other way around. Because of scheduling, Guida is the next fight on our radar … If [Ben is] not going to fight for the title in his next fight, then I’m gonna ask the UFC to give us ‘the’ guy to beat.”