Writer Turned Fighter: “Yo Sharon, I did it!”
 By "Big Dog" Benny Henderson Jr. (February 8, 2006)
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Benny Henderson Jr. ©
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Federal and State License fees: fifty-five dollars
Round trip to fight: five hundred dollars
Wages earned for debut bout: zero dollars
Knocking your opponent out in his home state in the
Opening round winning your debut: Priceless!
If I were to sum this fighting experience up in one word it would be a simple…REAL! Yes, real is the word, cheesy huh? You are thinking, aren’t you supposed to be a freaking writer, and all you can come up with is real? Limited, your vocabulary is seriously limited.
Well, yes I am limited, but it is real, very real, and worth every damn minute!
The training lacked the last three weeks before the fight due to an undisclosed wrist injury and a bad cold a week and a half before the fight – no excuses, just being honest. So being truthful I had one solid day of a serious workout the three weeks prior to the fight. Although I was still coughing and hacking days before the fight, I felt strong on the actual day.
Leading up to the fight I was extremely nervous. I don’t know about others in the business but I started doubting myself. You start to question if you worked hard enough, ate the right foods, ran the proper miles, sparred enough rounds. Will I be able to take a punch, can I get on the inside of my opponent, will my power and speed be good enough to get him out of there? All these thoughts kept running through my head. I knew I wasn’t ready for a four round fight, I felt if I had to I may muster up enough to pull through but if we went toe-to-toe I was only able to throw down for two or three tops. But I was game for whatever I had to face.
The inner strength carries you through.
I am a spiritual guy, I believe my strength comes from Christ. Others may not believe or have my faith and that is their human right to do so, but I will say this, through my experience I felt that my faith through Christ really helped me. My faith really strengthened me and to know that my God was with me kept me mentally strong. Sometimes faith is all a man has, faith in whatever they want to believe in, but nevertheless faith. To know that I had all the readers, my church family, family and friends with me also gave me a tremendous amount of strength; pressure, yes, but it also brought strength. But my faith sure didn’t add to my skill level.
The hours leading up the fight was heck on my mental outlook. It is mentally draining to walk in for the weigh in and never seeing your opponent before and walk up to some tall cat and shake hands and in middle of the shake find out that within hours your job was to knock him out. He was taller than me, but I had weight on my side, a stick versus a ball to be blunt about it. Ron Collins, 0-6, yes a losing record but he had six fights on me, he has made that walk six times prior to this one, he has never won so he had nothing riding on this, if he wins he gets his first win, if he loses oh well it is a payday. But me on the other hand, man I had to win, I had to gain the W, I couldn’t lose, I felt I would let everybody down if I fell out to exhaustion or to a punch, so I sucked it up went about my business to the dressing room.
Pre fight prayer and off to the long dreaded ring walk.
I was the first fight of the night. Collins went out first then I began my walk down the isle. My son was in front, my corner men, myself and a few of my family and friends followed behind. I could hear the screams, some boos and some go knock him out but loud as ever and extremely blood pumping energy!
Had some Johnny Cash going, covering the old Sound Garden tune ‘Rusty Cage’, and when I stepped in the ring I felt alive. I thought to myself, “You are finally here!” Despite being told not to stare down my opponent I did anyway, I could have starred a hole through his head, the crowd disappeared, the ref gave the instructions and then the bell rang.
Remember the ‘Real’ word? Well, it came to reality when the bell sounded off, I was going to step to my right and work off of my jab, I knew I had to get inside of him and work his body, he was much taller than myself but my sparring partner was 6’3” so I knew what I had to do.
The fight plan flew right out the window!
It was a barroom brawl, no ‘sweet science’ in the Big Dog’s debut. Collins stayed at the ropes so for some reason so I turned into a bulldozer and plowed right into my opponent. Wild swings filled the air, we tangled up and Collins fell down, even funnier is the fact that we tied up again and I tripped up and hit the canvas. Humility set in at that moment, I had to settle down, and I lost my cool. So I threw out a jab and it landed, I thought to myself, man I can land a one-two and win this, then Ron landed a solid right hand that had me tasting blood. I remember what Lamon Brewster told me the day before the fight, “Stop watching those Rocky movies Benny they are going to get you hurt!”
So I basically said screw it, I am not going to stand here and play pugilist with this cat I am going to bang with him, knock him out or get knocked out! Or to put it another way, just Butterbean it!
I took a few shots but I got inside of him and began my work. To be honest I don’t know what landed at first but Collins bent down and tried to step left and at that moment I landed two clubbing right hands that sent Ron to the canvas. He perched on one knee rubbing his nose and never even tried to beat the ten count.
At nine I knew I had the victory, a part of me wanted to run around screaming acting like a fool but out of respect I raised my hands and gave out a yell. The pressure was finally gone, I had won my debut. Spectacular? Shoot no, but man a win is a win. My dream of becoming a fighter was compete; I had walked down the isle, felt the punches, tasted the blood and gave my opponent his seventh loss, and I respect the man I beat. The fight was over just about as soon as it started; 1:13 in the opening round seemed like forever. Didn’t matter if my opponent never won. I did, I walked out the winner. Got some slaps on the back, a few ‘Great job Big Dog’ and even signed an autograph. Man it was one heck of a night, it was fun, it was life changing and most certainly, it was real.
Writers note:
When I began this article and journey I wanted to tell my side of the story, I wanted the readers to get a feeling of what it was like to step in the ring from my perspective. This doesn’t make a good fighter, not a better writer, but hopefully some more creditability in my opinions. I hope the readers enjoyed this, but most importantly I hope they see that being a fighter isn’t easy, regardless if a fighter is a world champ or a club fighter they deserve respect. It isn’t easy getting hit in the face for entertainment and a bit of respect is appreciated. For the ones who emailed me and spoke of inspiration I thank you, but I strongly urge you to please find qualified persons to train you and for the ones who dream, all I can say is that they can come true!
Thank you for all who supported me through it all. John Carlo for breathing down my neck about these articles, Anthony and Chee, you are my brothers! The Dog Pounders, you guys are very real and your opinions good or bad are appreciated. To all my family and friends I love you and thank you for making the six-hour trip, The Green Brier gym for working my corner and to Stacy Goodson for making my dreams come true!
Will I continue or retire undefeated?
Stay tuned.
ALSO READ: Part ONE
ALSO READ: Part TWO
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