Anthony
Pettis and Benson
Henderson will have their trilogy in a slightly different
combat sports arena.
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The former UFC champions will meet at 170 pounds in the headliner
of Karate Combat 43 on Dec. 15 at the Expo at World Trade Market in
Las Vegas. The promotion confirmed the pairing following an initial
report from
MMAFighting.com.
Pettis owns a 2-0 mark against Henderson under MMA rules. The two
lightweights closed out the World Extreme Cagefighting era in
December 2010, when Pettis took a five-round verdict over Henderson
in a bout that saw him unveil his “Showtime Kick.” They squared off
again at UFC 164 in August 2013, when Pettis claimed the
lightweight belt with a first-round submission victory.
More recently, Pettis went 1-4 under the Professional Fighters
League banner from 2021 to 2022. He then tried his hand at the
Sweet Science, earning a majority decision victory against Roy
Jones Jr. at Gamebred Boxing 4 this past April.
The 39-year-old Henderson left the UFC in 2016 for Bellator, where
he went 7-7 with the California-based promotion. He announced his
retirement from MMA following a first-round submission loss to
Usman
Nurmagomedov at Bellator 292 on March 10.
According to the report, Karate Combat is also in talks with the
likes of Jose Aldo,
Luke
Rockhold, Lyoto
Machida, Michael
Page and Darren Till
regarding potential fights in the organization.