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  - HENDERSON HEALING, VARNER FIGHT LIKELY IN 2010
Tuesday, October 13, 2009 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
Showing toughness and maturity in his first ever title fight, Ben Henderson shocked many and impressed even more with his five-round performance in defeating Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone at WEC 43 on Saturday night. For the new interim champion, he was happy with the outcome and proud to defeat such a worthy opponent.
Following the fight, Cerrone gave Henderson all the respect in the world, while also proclaiming that he felt that the Arizona based fighter definitely won at the end of a championship classic.
"It meant a lot to me, not all the media and all that stuff, obviously, yes it does matter. It does affect on a wider scale him and I personally, but him saying that was all I really cared about," Henderson told MMAWeekly Radio on Monday. "All I heard was him talking to me directly, 'Hey, I thought you did a good job. I thought you won the fight,' and to me personally, man to man, as buddies, as friends, it says a lot to me and it meant a lot to me for him to say that and to think that I won the fight."
Knowing what a tough opponent Cerrone was, Henderson fully expects that the two lightweights will have to meet again at some point down the road.
"Donald's a straight up tough dude and I know he's planning on getting better and improving his skills and getting to that next level," said Henderson. "I have to get a lot better. I have to take myself to the next level, jiu-jitsu, striking, my wrestling, everything. I fully plan on seeing Donald later on in the future. I know that we're going to have to in most likelihood match up again."
While the victory was sweet, Henderson didn’t get much time to celebrate. After the fight, he was taken to a local hospital for treatment for severe dehydration, something the fighter attributes to not properly re-hydrating after his weigh-in the day before.
"Extreme case of dehydration, took four bags of IV. I was extremely exhausted," he recounted. "I have to fix that problem for the next fight. I have to be able to go all five rounds at that first pace of rounds one, two, and three. I want to keep that up for all five rounds next time."
The other injury sustained by the new champion came with only 20 seconds remaining in the fight. Cerrone caught Henderson with a punch that damaged his eye, and while initial signs pointed at a detached retina, in the end it was just a painful eye injury.
"I talked to my ophthalmologist today, they managed to sneak me in. He said ultimately take the week off, not do any running, jumping, no physical activity whatsoever, we'll let some of the swelling go down, and take a look at it again next week and see how it looks then," Henderson said.
With the win, he now stands squarely in front of the other WEC lightweight titleholder, Jamie Varner, who greeted the new champion just seconds after his victory. Henderson says he knew Varner was the next challenge, and that's just fine by him, but the originally orchestrated date in December is not likely to happen.
"That's the good thing I think going into this fight. Donald and I both knew whoever won the fight we knew who our opponent was going to be, we knew it was going to be relatively quick," commented Henderson. "I know who my next guy's going to be. Hopefully it gets done here in Phoenix. Time frame wise we'll see, I think December's a little bit early. I'm going to take some time off, get 100-percent, obviously let me eye heel up and whatnot, be as 100-percent as I can before I start over again and just get better.
"I’m not to the point yet where I can go from training camp to training camp to training camp and not worry about improving my skills. I'm still pretty young in the game, almost three years now I've been fighting, and for three years I've done a decent enough job, but I've got a long way to go still."
Always professional and always sincere, Henderson didn't have a bad word to say about Varner, and he looks forward to unifying the titles in the near future.
"He's always been professional and nice to me. He helped me get ready for some of my fights. I helped him get ready for some of his fights, his first world title defense against Marcus Hicks," he said of Varner. "Nothing but good things to say about Jamie at all."
For now, Henderson will enjoy some down time as he lets his eye heal, and then it's back to training for the fight that will declare the only WEC lightweight champion.
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