Meet Benson Henderson

Hi everyone! I would like to tell you about a new friend of mine: Ultimate Fighting Champion Benson Henderson. Benson is the UFC lightweight champion, and he loves toothpicks, comic books, and training. Many of you, like me, might not know about UFC fighting, but let me tell you what I learned. The UFC is the largest mixed martial arts company in the world, and has the most top-ranked fighters in the sport. The UFC has eight weight divisions and enforces the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.

Benson was born in Colorado to a Korean mother and African-American father and has an older brother. At age 16 he took Tae Kwon Do with his brother and together they worked to earn black belts. Studying Tae Kwon Do was very important to Benson because it helped him learn more about his Korean culture and heritage. In high school and college he was on the wrestling team and was twice named All-America in college. He graduated from Dana collage with a double major in criminal justice and sociology.

I look up to Benson as a role model because he never had a sip of alcohol, smoked cigarettes, or touched drugs. I read that he looks up to his Jesus, his Mother, Clark Kent (alter ego of Superman) Steve Rodgers (alter ego of Captain America) and Steven Costanzo (his wrestling coach at Dana College). In 2009, Sports Illustrated voted his fight versus Donald Cerrone as the fight of the year, and then in 2010 his fight against Anthony Pettis was also the fight of the year according to USA Today. In 2012 he was voted Fighter of the Year by MMAWeekly.com, ESPN, and UFC.

Currently, Benson is ranked as the Number 1 lightweight fighter in the world by Sherdog, a website devoted to mixed martial arts. Benson trains in Glendale, Arizona at the MMA lab. He trains in several different MMA styles including Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He happens to also be the Bronze medalist from the 2011 World Jiu-Jitsu championships.