UFC 144 Japan: Benson Henderson Adds Size, Increases Advantage Over Frankie Edgar

The classic Mark Twain quote, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog,” is truly applicable to the lightweight elites in the UFC.

When the tremendous fighting ability of a smaller man is complimented with size, however, this dog becomes tougher and tougher to fight.

Enter Benson Henderson (15-2), the former WEC lightweight champion, who is riding high off of tremendous victories over notable contenders Clay Guida and Jim Miller. For the 28-year-old, he wanted to make his advantage in size just that much bigger, so that he can wear on Edgar. The UFC lightweight champion normally cuts little weight for a fight.

“I’m a little bigger now,” Henderson said recently.

“I’ve put on a little bit of size, yes.  I wanted to do it the right way,” he explained, noting that no one adds 20 pounds in one or two months.  “No, no one does that. That’s not how it works.  It takes three, four years to put on 10 pounds of solid muscle, actual legit muscle. It takes a long time, so I put on as much size as I would like to.”

Although he put on some additional size, Henderson knew he had to become a larger athlete the right way, as some fighters in the past have experienced cardio deficits when getting bigger. And in this fight against Edgar, the former WEC lightweight champion knows that his cardio has to be at its peak for UFC 144.

“I did put on a little bit of size.  It has not personally affected my cardio at all.  I’m able to go seven, eight rounds hard, fresh for each round, so it hasn’t really affected me negatively at all.”

Follow Andrew Gladstone at @gladstone1 on Twitter.
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