I thought he looked very very good tonight and lets not forget how good Cowboy's looked lately.
I thought Ben won but it was very close. Not a robbery. But people talking about Ben not going for the finish, Ben just pitter pattering..who rocked who? I thought Ben had the most dominant sequence of the fight in R3 where the other rounds were very close.
He was swinging for the fences with his lead right hook, so much that Cowboy usually saw them coming. But Ben rocked Cowboy with the high kick in R3! And people still have the nerve to say it was Ben not going for the finish, Ben just pitter pattering....Ben had some big body kicks and a nice knee to the body in R3 as well. I think he had the hardest shots easily in teh fight.
We all love Cowboy as we should but cmon fellas, Ben brought it just as much if not more tonight.
Ben has always caught shit on this site for not being a finisher. Personally, I find his style fun to watch. Some have said he is boring, but I don't see it. He does everything and does it well, he just lacks the one-punch KO power. Guy deserves a ton of respect. He has mine.
Yup, he just finished Khabilov and was throwing hard at Cowboy. Cowboy isnt exactly the easiest guy to fight let alone finish. Not everyone is Pettis. Even against Thomson where Ben got a lot of flack, he was making the harder striking attempts...yes i know Thomson broke his hand but Ben still brings it.......
He had very good fight IQ tonight too and i think it showed. Those "pitter patter" side kicks were used well like leg jabs and he also went from nice body kicks to that delayed kick to the far leg. He swiched stances and was telegraphing the right hand to go to the right leg...some interesting things he was doing tonight.
He looked great. Basically beat Cowboy standing 
I also noticed Benson loading up or telegraphing that right hook several times. Made a flying knee attempt and did some damage with that headkick.
Don't think it was a robbery either, but I certainly would've given it to him.
http://mmadecisions.com/decision/5921/Donald-Cerrone-vs-Benson-Henderson
Not sure how well that showed up but i think 12/14 gave it to Ben. Most had it 2-1 Ben.
MEDIA SCORES
Craig Amos
BleacherReport.com 29-28 Cerrone
TJ DeSantis
Sherdog.com 29-28 Cerrone
Tim Burke
BloodyElbow.com 28-29 Henderson
MMABrasil.com.br 28-29 Henderson
Wrestling Observer 28-29 Henderson
MMAJunkie.com 28-29 Henderson
Dallas Winston
BloodyElbow.com 28-29 Henderson
Brian Knapp
Sherdog.com 28-29 Henderson
Jordan Breen
Sherdog.com 28-29 Henderson
CagePages.com 28-29 Henderson
Jason Floyd
TheMMAReport.com 28-29 Henderson
MMAMania.com 28-29 Henderson
Sean Smith
BleacherReport.com 27-30 Henderson
John Pollock
Fight Network 27-30 Henderson
Henderson fights like someone who doesnt want to fight imo. More focused on evading than engaging, and occasionally throwing something wild. Not entertaining to watch.
Simen - Henderson fights like someone who doesnt want to fight imo. More focused on evading than engaging, and occasionally throwing something wild. Not entertaining to watch.
Weird that the guy that doesn't want to fight did the best damage of the fight in the 3rd round... And the one trying to get takedowns was Cerrone. Lol.
But I did score the fight for Cerrone with the first two rounds, Cerrone stole that second with the nice takedown in my eyes
I was 100% rooting for Cerrone but when they announced the decision I was completely surprised. I wouldn't call it a robbery either but it did look to me like Ben won that fight.
Bendo fought a great fight and really frustrated Cowboy. In the first round Bendo managed to land a flush straight right on Cowboy when he went for an intercepting knee and after that Cowboy didn't throw it again that I can remember. That knee has been instrumental in the resurgent Cowboy and how he has kept strikers at range and stopped the takedowns.
I think Cowboy was expecting Bendo to be shooting takedowns constantly, but Bendo really threw him off with his new range of techniques. He made Cowboy hesitant to throw and beat him to the strike for most of the fight.
Cowboy had his most success when he didn't wait to counter, but led himself. I really think it is a mental block that is affecting Cowboy in his fights with Bendo now. Perhaps it is the fact they are so friendly or that he had lost the previous two, but there was so little aggression. I feel like he was waiting for things to happen, whereas he should be forcing the action, as he is much better on the front foot and coming forward. Although, this is much easier to say than do against someone of Bendo's calibre.
I was surprised but happy that cerrone won. 
close fight, I didn't even want to guess who won, I had a lot of fun watching it, and it was either guy's fight. That being said, Cowboy is fuckin awesome, looking forward to his title shot!
I could not agree more OP. Excellent post.
Lick Boners -Yeah he will rush in, or throw some high kicks and wild swings every now and then, and sometimes land. But mostly he is backing or leaning away from his opponent or throwing leg or push kicks to keep them away. No combos. At least thats how i remember from watching with one eye.Simen - Henderson fights like someone who doesnt want to fight imo. More focused on evading than engaging, and occasionally throwing something wild. Not entertaining to watch.
Weird that the guy that doesn't want to fight did the best damage of the fight in the 3rd round... And the one trying to get takedowns was Cerrone. Lol.
Whenever two ranked guys fight, it should really be five rounds. Bad decisions in three round fights just seem to sting more, and nothing looked resolved at the end of that.
Boring Henderson would get more respect if he came to fight instead of manipulate the judges and crowd. He should cut his hair so he stops manicuring himself while fighting, and he can focus on fighting.
Keep pointing to sky daddy Boring, he's not helping you. Focus on fighting.
Wonder how the judges viewed the front leg sidekick to Cowboy's lead leg. Space keeping or damaging? It made up a lot of Benson's attacks and we were all colored by the commentary... but if the judges didn't see it that way...
I thot the front leg attacks were solid and damaging.