What could Henderson do to UFC lightweights?

The song "Ring my Bell" comes to mind. You?

WEC 48 was a great card full of solid matches, two zombies and one big juicy turkey leg ready for the holiday UFC… er, that other organization’s celebration.

One of the most pleasant surprises was the sheer domination of “Smooth” Ben Henderson and his slinky, flexy self against Donald Cerrone who tapped out in less than two minutes – that or go to sleep and use Smooth as a Snuggie.

The guy has a game that’s off the chain – sleek enough to avoid Gilbert Melendez, strong enough to force Frankie Edgar into a sprawling fit and tough enough to take a Ken-Flo elbow to his medulla and keep on ticking.

But would he tap to B.J. Penn? I realize Frankie is the champ, and rightly so, but Baby Jay is an icon in this weight class. The frustrating thing is Dana White is running UFC and WEC concurrently, so we will ever find out?

Dana thinks it is not out of the realm of possibility, according to MMAJunkie.com:

How do you manage two separate 155-pound divisions? UFC president Dana White recently said that the promotions will likely one day merge the two divisions into the UFC, but for now, he’s got another idea for his top WEC lightweights: send them to Japan.

I would be so down with that. These amazing athletes tear it up in the House of the Rising Sun and come back to the states and create an eclipse. Folk in the lightweight divisions wouldn’t know what hit them.

It makes sense because where do you rank the dude? He has plowed through every lightweight in the WEC like the stomach flu through a G.I. tract – nice, fast and easy. (Hey, you understood it, didn’t you? All right then.)

The aforementioned duo – Melendez and Aoki – just got down on the Strikeforce debacle with Gilbert getting down on the man sans tights. As soon as Ben completed the match, MMA aficionados began their fantasy MMA teams and the mêlée began for the lightweight draft:

“When I look at the rankings of many of you in here, it drives me [expletive] nuts,” White said. “Henderson, because he’s in the WEC, and we own the WEC, where’s he ranked right now with most of you guys? But if he was in [expletive] Japan or some other place, you guys would have him ranked No. 2. It drives me crazy.”

Contrary to what some may believe, the WEC is not the UFC “farm system.”

It is run independently of the UFC, but if people yell loud enough, there could be the same anomaly like what happened to the 170s – they are no longer in WEC and GSP has a home in the UFC of which he will probably never get evicted.

So, stand down, folks. So far, Smooth Ben is going nowhere but perhaps the deft troika of pound-for-pound champs need to shipped overseas to fulfill their destinies? Maybe then we could answer the question, “Could Smooth Ben best the works of B.J. Penn.”

I know. I know. Frankie is the champ, and rightly so but face it, Penn is an icon in the weight class. Who would you rather fight? Maybe Dana knows that answer as well. Time will certainly tell.

Jake Shields about to strike in the UFC

Some say that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Well, aside from the 998 that must be trolling through the methodical and splendid mind of Dana White, I can imagine two that he is thinking when it comes to Strikeforce, “Suck it!”

Take this picture from the Aldo V. Faber broadcast:

If Dana looked any happier to be sitting next to this guy, I would say... well, never mind

What other conclusion can you make to this chess move other than if Anderson Silva plows through Chael Sonnen (which will be no cake walk, rest assured, as he is already talking smack), Jake Shields will be first to stick his Knight 3 right up the Rook of the Spider?

That or have tea with the Queen of GSP? Either way, you get the point. UFC – here he comes and so is a superfight to make our MMA pants go crazy!

According to MMAFighting.com, Dana is “very confident” about MMA’s hottest free agent joining the UFC roster.

“The deal with Shields, is that there’s some discrepancy as to whether it’s 45 or 60 days he has left on his contract,” White told a group of reporters after the press conference. “So he can work that out with the knuckleheads (Strikeforce), and when he does, we’ll jump in there.”

As the former Strikeforce champ is feeling froggy, he believes there is some business when he does jump into UFC, according to FightLine.com:

“I just want to fight the best in the world,” Shields stated. “I wanna fight the best. I mean, it doesn’t mean I’m going to the UFC, but I would like to fight guys like Anderson [Silva] and GSP. That doesn’t mean I’ll get them for sure but those are some guys that I’d love to fight one day.”

So, if that adage is true and a picture does say a 1,000 words, imagine the fully involved and introspective conversation that first check Dana cuts will have with Jake. Either way, let’s get this on!