Benson Henderson upsets Islam Mamedov at Bellator 273

Live mixed martial arts action returns to us tonight from the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona for Bellator 273.

Headlining the event is a heavyweight championship clash showcasing former Bellator light-heavyweight champion, and current heavyweight champion Ryan Bader, who faces interim champion Valentin Moldavsky in a title unification bout.

Co-headlining the event is former WEC & UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, who faces Islam Mamedov tonight for the supposed No. 1 contendership at 155 lbs.

Continue reading to see how this lightweight encounter went down:

Official Result: Benson Henderson def. Islam Mamedov via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)

Mamedov takes the center of the octagon, while Henderson gets off his leg kicks from the outside. Mamedov then ties up with the former champion and attempts a throw.

However, Henderson saw it coming and countered it, ending up on top, before he jumps for a guillotine choke.

This choke was incredibly tight, but eventually, forcing the incorrect angle, Mamedov was able to get out of it with about 15 seconds left in the first round.

Henderson jumps for another guillotine early in round two following a scramble, but Mamedov was more wise to it this time and immediately passed into side control, and then mount.

Once Henderson turned his back, Mamedov nearly finished the fight with a rear naked choke, he came very close.

Though he couldn’t submit the BJJ black belt, he did absolutely maul him for the remainder of round two.

After a decent start to round three, Henderson once again ends up on his back, the result of a double leg takedown.

Henderson begins to make his way up before rolling for a leg lock, something he’s done a number of times tonight.

Mamedov ends the fight on top, and became very close to being undefeated in his last 21 fights.

However, it was a close decision, which saw Henderson end the longest losing skid of his career.

Henderson improves to 29-11, Mamedov falls to 20-2-1

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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