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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
With Ben Henderson successfully defending his title on Saturday night at UFC on Fox 5, the discussion inevitably shifts to who he should fight next. The conventional wisdom is that Anthony Pettis will be in line should he defeat Donald Cerrone at UFC on Fox 6 in January, but Henderson is prepared to take on all comers, and is confident he's going to remain on top.
"The list of guys is so long," he commented on the Fuel TV post-fight show on Saturday. "Really, I heard talk from these guys thinking that I was going to lose and that Nate was better than me. They're entitled to their opinions and can think whatever they want to think, but if they want the 155-pound belt in the next three years, they're going to have to win it from me. I'm not going anywhere. If you want win that belt, you're not going to win it from somebody else. You're going to have to win it from me. I'm not going anywhere, guys."
UFC President Dana White said he supports the idea of the Pettis fight, but as with most everything, White's response to the question of "who's next?" was very noncommittal.
"I have no idea," White said. "Pettis deserves it. We'll see what happens."
Penick's Analysis: The Pettis-Henderson matchup in the final WEC fight was one of those epic five round title fights that will be talked about for a long time in this sport. And it's not just for the "Showtime Kick," which was obviously the highlight. No, that fight simply had everything, with two young, talented, exciting fighters doing everything they could think of doing to win that fight. Pettis desperately wants to prove that he can still beat Henderson, and he's going to have another chance to get back to that fight when he squares off against Donald Cerrone in January. If he gets that win, I think he'll be next to fight Henderson in 2013.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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