TJ Grant gets his lightweight title shot at UFC 164

Benson Henderson vs TJ Grant title fight announced at UFC 164

by Tommy Strong @Strong_tea

UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson will be putting his belt on the line for the fourth time against number one contender in the division TJ Grant. Its been announced the fight will take place at UFC 164 on Aug 31st in Milwaukee, and will be the main event of the evening.

Benson (19-2) who is yet to lose a fight since signing with the UFC, will enter the octagon on a 7 fight winning streak with all fights coming via decision. Since beating Frankie Edgar to win the lightweight title, he went on to defend his belt in a rematch with Edgar in what many thought was a controversial split decision win. Next in line for Benson was Nate Diaz who he brushed aside in dominating fashion, this is often forgotten though when people say Benson is always in close decision contests.

Last time out Benson defeated Gilbert Melendez at UFC on Fox 7 in April, which proved to be an epic back and forth battle. Benson finally came out victorious to take a very close split decision win .

TJ Grant (21-5) has shot up the rankings in recent time, currently ranked number 3 in the official UFC Rankings. Grant was announced as the number one contender following a devastating knockout of Gray Maynard at UFC 160 in May. In the process he became only the second fighter to ever stop Maynard. Now its his turn to get a shot at the title. Can he be the first man to beat Benson Henderson in the UFC.... we will find out in August.

Grant will return to the octagon in August in a very confident mood, having won 5 fights on the bounce and his last two fights via KO with wins over Wiman & Maynard.

Lets hope this doesn't come down to the judges score cards and we're not talking about another close decision win that could have gone either way. I feel its time Benson pulled out all the stops and went for a stoppage inside the distance.

Also on the card we will see the return of Josh Barnett who will be taking on Frank Mir in a heavyweight bout. Josh will be making his first appearance in the UFC since March 2002 where he defeated Randy Couture to win the Heavyweight title at UFC 36. Only later to be stripped of the title due to testing positive for banned substances and released from the UFC.