Benson Henderson says PFL matchmaker Mike Kogan kept needling him about what people were saying online until he finally agreed to come out of retirement for a fight against Patrick Habirora at PFL Brussels on Saturday.
Henderson retired from MMA in 2023 but remained active in boxing, karate combat, and freestyle wrestling. Speaking to MMA Fighting, he explained exactly how the comeback came together.
My man Mike Kogan, the head matchmaker for PFL, great guy, I love him, he’s always done me right. But he texted me, he needled me a couple of times like ‘oh man, Henderson, guys online are talking smack, saying this, saying that’ and I’m like people can say whatever, it’s cool, no big deal. They’re saying you don’t have it anymore. I told him, I don’t care. People have been after me my whole career. I’ve done all right. People are allowed to have their opinion. But he kept needling me a couple more times and then he texted me two days later and said ‘hey, I’ve got a matchup for you, Patrick Habirora, why don’t you remind the world who you are, what you did and what you can do. You know what? Sounds good, Kogan. Let’s remind the world who I am and what I’ve done and how I do it.
Henderson, 42, said he never truly stepped away from training at The MMA Lab in Arizona, returning to the gym the week after retiring.
Since the day I retired, I was back in the gym the next week, on the mats training again. Our whole thing at The MMA Lab is being the hardest working gym in the world. We fight on Saturdays and back in the gym on Monday working to get better, win or lose, it doesn’t matter. I never stopped. I never stopped training.
Henderson said he is signed to a three-fight deal with PFL but is taking things one fight at a time.
“My mindset after I beat Patrick, after the referee pulls me off of him, my mindset is more along the lines of whatever comes. I’m not itching to fight this guy or that guy. I’m not looking to get another belt around my waist. I’ll take it a fight at a time. I like to compete. I will compete until my body won’t allow me anymore.”
