Hopefully, he’ll get a better reception at the wedding.
UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson proposed to his girlfriend to a chorus of boos after retaining his title with a controversial split decision win over Gilbert Melendez at UFC on FOX 7 on Saturday night in San Jose, Calif.
The pro-Melendez crowd didn’t like how the judges scored the fight and they let Henderson know it – even as he got on one knee to propose to longtime sweetheart Maria Maganas.
When UFC color commentator Joe Rogan came into the Octagon to interview him after the win, Henderson spurned him.
“I’ve gotta see about a girl real quick,” he said.
Henderson was then handed a box by one of his trainers. His cornermen brought Henderson’s girlfriend, Maria Maganas, into the cage and the champ got down on one knee.
“I love you,” he said. “I’m not perfect. I never have been. But you make me happier every single day, more than any man has a right to be. I love you. Will you marry me?”
Maganas said yes as the crowd turned around a bit slightly.
Henderson said on the Fuel TV post-fight show that UFC president Dana White allowed him to pop the question, but only if he finished Melendez fast so there would be time remaining on the FOX broadcast. That didn’t happen, but Henderson was still able to get his way.
“Dana White brought me to his office downstairs to his office during the prelims,” Henderson said. “He told me, ‘We heard you want to do this proposal thing. Are you sure you want to do it?’ I said, ‘Yeah I want to go through with it.’ He said, ‘Ok, you have to put him away early, because there’s not time after that.’ So you need either a submission or a knockout. As if there’s not enough pressure on my shoulders, now I have to put him away.”
