At UFC 211, coach Mark Henry treads cautiously around title talk for Frankie Edgar, Eddie Alvarez

When talking to Mark Henry, there are two surefire guarantees: He will wax lyrical about every fighter under his tutelage, and speak nothing but the undiluted truth.

Maybe it’s the boxer in him, but pulling punches just isn’t in the New Jersey native’s wheelhouse, while his palpable passion for the fight game – at least its purest version – is a refreshing contrast to the cynicism currently permeating elite MMA.

That’s not to say Henry has remained untouched by the UFC’s seeming abandonment of the once unwavering meritocracy that helped distinguish the promotion from not only its contemporaries in MMA, but a boxing landscape increasingly mired by a venal bureaucracy.

With Frankie Edgar and Eddie Alvarez, two of his most renowned pupils, in action at UFC 211 on Saturday night at American Airlines Center in Dallas, Henry views the potential ramifications of a victory in their respective bouts with a well-worn caution.

Edgar (21-5-1 MMA, 15-5-1 UFC) takes on rising prospect Yair Rodriguez (10-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in a featherweight showdown on the main card, which will be aired live on pay-per-view.

Alvarez (28-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) faces fellow lightweight Dustin Poirier (21-5 MMA, 13-4 UFC) on the FX-broadcast preliminary card following additional prelims on UFC Fight Pass. It’s his first bout since losing the 155-pound strap to Conor McGregor at UFC 205 this past November.

“There isn’t any rhyme or reason to it”

Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier

Henry coached both Edgar and Alvarez to the summit of the lightweight division. But with the UFC’s increasingly indiscriminate method of selecting title challengers, he refuses to presume what exactly will be at stake come Saturday.

“There isn’t any rhyme or reason to it,” Henry told MMAjunkie. “You look at middleweight and Michael Bisping, who beat Anderson Silva, who was ranked around No. 14 (in the UFC). Then, after he takes the title off Luke Rockhold, Dan Henderson gets a title shot even though he had been finished in three of his last six fights.

“Holy Holm had lost a bunch of fights and then got a title shot, (losing to Germaine de Randamie in inaugural women’s featherweight title bout at UFC 208). So you’ll be banging your head up against the wall if you try and figure it out.”

Furthermore, it’s not as if the picture is crystal clear at featherweight or lightweight, where the shadow of a certain Irishman looms large.

Jose Aldo reigns supreme in the former bracket, although he was awarded his title without throwing a single punch after the UFC announced Conor McGregor, who amassed no defenses in 11 months, had vacated his throne – a narrative the Dubliner wholly disputes.

Aldo meets interim champion Max Holloway in a unification bout in the main event of UFC 212 in Rio de Janeiro in June, so at least some semblance of clarity can be had by the end of business at Jeunesse Arena.

When McGregor usurped Alvarez at Madison Square Garden, he became the first man in company history to concurrently hold two world titles, but also announced a prolonged hiatus to await the birth of his son, who was born this past week.

Conor McGregor, the boxer

Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez

In the meantime, his much-mooted bout with 49-0 retired boxer Floyd Mayweather has yet to make tangible headway. While trying to forge ahead amid all the chaos, Henry often deviates between states of exacerbation and bemusement

“You’ve got the 145-pound division and Jose Aldo, a champion who never wants to fight, so that stinks if you’re in a division like that,” he said. “Then there’s Conor in the 155-pound division, and he wants to box.

“It sucks that we have some guys ranked really high, like Frankie, Eddie and Edson (Barboza), and we don’t know what’s going on. You’ve just got to hope that the UFC calls your number or that your manager can do something for you.”

Matters at lightweight certainly weren’t helped when Khabib Nurmagomedov was forced to withdraw from a highly anticipated interim title bout with Tony Ferguson at UFC 209, while Nate Diaz appears more than happy devote his attention to triathlons.

Donald Trump, UFC lightweight contender?

Edson Barboza

At this stage, Henry and his elite fighters rarely even discuss the possibility of clinching UFC gold, so capricious are the promotion’s decision makers.

As far as he’s concerned, in the not-too-distant future, we may well see America’s commander-in-chief enter the octagon decked out in Reebok apparel and four-ounce gloves and ready to compete for the sport’s top prize.

“We used to talk about that stuff when we first got close to the title, but every guy is different,” Henry explained. “Edson Barboza has never fought for the title and is getting close to a shot, but I’ve been through the Conor thing at featherweight, so my advice on lightweight is don’t even waste your time going there.

“The UFC is going to cater to whatever Conor wants, and it’s a whole new system there with who they’re letting fight. I’ve said in interviews before that it could even be Donald Trump fighting for the 155-pound title next. It’s not worth getting riled up about it and the only thing you can do, particularly if you’ve never fought for the title, is concentrate on yourself and getting better.”

What all this amounts to, according to the striking guru, is the UFC’s undermining of the very manifesto that saw President Dana White and erstwhile majority shareholders the Fertitta brothers transform MMA from a waning commodity on the brink of extinction into a global phenomenon.

“They kept saying that there was the one UFC belt and that they were not like boxing,” Henry said. “Well, now they’re getting pretty close. They have the interim belt now, and that could be the IBF title, and then the other one is the WBC.

“So now they have excuses to let Conor do what he wants or to let fighters not fight, so what they said they never would be is what they’ve become.”

Focusing in on UFC 211

Yair Rodriguez

However, in the coming days, there are bigger fish to fry, namely Yair Rodriguez and Dustin Poirier. In the case of Rodriguez, who won “The Ultimate Fighter: Latin America” and whose lone defeat came just shy of five years ago, Henry is slightly suspicious of the matchmaking that brought the surging Mexican and Edgar together.

“You’d have to be blind not to see Yair is very good, but I’m not sure if he’s fought anybody in the top 30, and there are people like Frankie who were made to work their way up before getting a No. 2 guy,” Henry said. “Frankie and Ricardo Lamas had agreed to fight, but the UFC (matchmakers) are pushing Yair. We’re not stupid and we’ve been doing this for a long time, and they even had Yair at the fights with Dana.

“We’re definitely used to it, but we kind of like it because it gives us motivation. When we kind of feel that the UFC wants Frankie to lose, it kind of stokes us up. To tell you the truth, we’d rather have it than not have it.”

Rodriguez’s most notable victory came against B.J. Penn, whom he destroyed within two rounds in his most recent outing. Rodriguez is 11 years Edgar’s junior, and he enjoys a five- and three-inch advantage in height and reach, respectively. The 24-year-old also fights out of the revered Jackson-Wink MMA gym in Albuquerque, N.M.

Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar at UFC 156

Edgar, the wily old dog that he is, has lost just twice since moving to 145 pounds – to Aldo in UFC featherweight title and interim title fights. His list of vanquished foes includes Chad Mendes, Cub Swanson, Urijah Faber, Penn and, most recently, Jeremy Stephens.

Should he overcome Rodriguez, provided Holloway follows suit against Aldo, Henry reckons, albeit with huge trepidation, that the UFC will have little choice in what to do next.

“Pretty much everybody but Frankie has fought Holloway, and he’s ranked high, so we definitely have to get through Yair,” Henry said. “Logically, going by the UFC’s old motto of making fights people want to see, if Holloway won, they’d match him and Frankie. So the winner of Frankie and Yair should face Holloway if he wins. But I’ve been wrong before.”

Such was McGregor’s systematic destruction of Alvarez, whose tenure as UFC lightweight champion proved the shortest ever, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the Philadelphian was crushed in the aftermath of that chastening defeat.

Not so, explained Henry, because the veteran was far too busy enjoying his life outside competition. What’s more, the fight with Poirier, which is being heralded as a “Fight of the Night” contender, is the perfect opportunity to reboot what is still a relatively young spell in the UFC.

“Eddie has an amazing wife, Jamie, and the first thing in their life isn’t fighting – it’s each other and their kids,” Henry said. “They had a lot of good things going on at the time, so you forget the fight quick. Eddie is a fighter’s fighter – that’s all I can tell you about him. He’s the nicest guy in the world, but he’s a savage, and I love that about him.

“And with Dustin, you know he only has one gear and that’s forward. He’s going to bring the best out of Eddie. Fans always want to watch him fight, and Eddie wanted this because Dustin is such a great fighter.”

Henry’s passion for MMA is beyond question, but when asked would he recommend it as a career path, his answer is typically forthright. Recalling a conversation with a man he’ll be coaching against on Saturday, there’s a jarring lament in his tone.

“I see the average the fighter trying to make it,” he said. “He’s 35, has a wife and kids, and has just got knocked out for the third straight time and been through a knee or back surgery. The UFC might cut him, and now he has to get a regular job.

“When I look at MMA, that’s what I see. I remember talking to Greg Jackson about it one time, and I said that sometimes I feel like a drug dealer by enabling these guys to go ahead with this whole thing.”

For more on UFC 211, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.