Issue 101

May 2013

The young Benson Henderson, his head shaven, wearing glasses, used to escape into comic books. He admits to Fighters Only’s Gareth A Davies that his interest in comic books bordered on obsession. 

“I had to be dragged out of my room, ‘cos I’d be reading comic books or a new novel I’d got from the library. I read a lot,” he says.“I was pretty boring. I wasn’t the kid who got in a lot of trouble. I wasn’t the kid who was super popular.” 

He reveled in the escapism.“I was just a regular kid who spent a lot of time in my room reading comic books. I was really big into X-Men, the Marvel universe, X-Force, X-Factor, a lot of the X books, Excalibur. 

“I really loved comic novels just for the fact that it took you to another place, the whole appeal of the future, this could happen and this could happen.” 

In his mind, he was the fictional character Cable.“One of my favorite characters, the one who I always paid attention to, always watched, was Cable. He was the leader of X-Force, and X-Force had a bunch of great characters. I love all those characters.” Like Colossus, Doctor Nemesis, Domino, Forge – all heroes to the young Benson. 

Today, in a sense, that heroism is played out and reflected by the larger-than-life characters, the champions, in fight sports. “Absolutely,” says the UFC lightweight champ. “Just like people nowadays watch X-Men movies and all the great comic movies, The Avengers, that just came out last summer, Iron Man. All good stories, and for all the people involved it helps to escape with your imagination. It’s also a pretty great source to help you expand your imagination.” 

There are lessons here, believes Henderson, in work and life.

“Cable was just a man trying to do the right thing, and he wasn’t afraid to make the hard decision to do the right thing. You have to be the one who’s going to do it and not just wait for something to happen. Cable shoots first and asks questions later.” 

He adds: “Sometimes people want to do this and they want to do that, but they’re afraid to break a few eggs doing it. They’re afraid to get their hands dirty. I like Cable because he was a good guy but he was one of those good guys who wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. That’s what really appealed to me.”