It is said often there is a difference between arrogance and confidence.

You’d probably be hard-pressed to find many people who would say UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson falls into any type of cocky or arrogant category. But when it comes to confidence? That’s a different story.

Henderson has made casual mention of it for a while, and it’s almost been his calling card. When it comes to the goals he has as a UFC champion, whatever records middleweight champ Anderson Silva ultimately sets before walking away from the sport, “Smooth” wants to end his career with those marks. He reiterated that earlier this week to MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

“I’m going to fight three more times this year, three times the year after, three times the year after (that), and that will put me right at Anderson’s record,” Henderson said. “Once I pass his record, I’m retiring. I’m done. After that, I’ll go on to my second career and be a librarian or something.”

Silva owns the UFC records for most successful title defenses with 10, and they’ve been consecutive, which also is, of course, a record. That means he has 11 wins in title fights, also the high-water mark. And those are the ones Henderson wants to chase.

Henderson won the lightweight title against Frankie Edgar at UFC 144. He beat him in their UFC 150 rematch this past August, then dominated Nate Diaz at UFC on FOX 5 in December, giving him three UFC title fight wins and two defenses. He’s got nine to go to catch Silva – who as of now isn’t showing any signs of stopping, and will defend his 185-pound belt against Chris Weidman in July.

Henderson (18-2 MMA, 6-0 UFC) next defends his title against former Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez (21-2 MMA, 11-1 SF, 0-0 UFC) next month at UFC on FOX 7 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

It’s a fight he believes he’ll win – not because he’s arrogant. And not because he thinks he’ll have a better training camp. For Henderson, the preparation for this fight started long ago, even as he was facing other opponents.

“I’m not going to win the Gilbert Melendez fight because of what I do these next six weeks,” he said. “I’m going to win that Gilbert Melendez fight because of what I did for the past one year, two years – training hard the right way.”

That training is what sets the bar for less experienced and younger fighters around Henderson at the MMA Lab camp in Arizona. There, Henderson said, he often is put in a mentoring role and coaching role – not something he treats lightly.

But when he acts in that role, talk seems to be cheap.

“It’s a wrestler mentality,” Henderson said. “We don’t like to talk too much. We lead by example. I like to let my actions do my talking for me. I just show up, bust my butt and the guys (in the gym) see, ‘Oh, that’s what you’ve got to do.'”

Busting his butt is clearly what needs to take place to prepare for Melendez, who many see as the No. 2 lightweight in the world, and have for years, only behind Henderson or Edgar before him.

Busting his butt is what Henderson, confidently, knows how to do.

“You bust your butt for every fight as if it’s a world-title fight,” he said. “I’ve been doing that since I first started. My first fight, I might not have done things the best way, the most correct way, but I always gave my best effort. Eventually, with time, you fine-tune things and do things a more efficient way. You don’t quite know how you’re going to be come fight night. You don’t quite know how your opponent’s going to be. Something fluky could happen. But as far as your preparation going into a fight, that’s something you 100 percent completely control.

“If I’m fighting someone who’s not even in the Top 100, I’m training for him like he’s (Georges) St-Pierre.”

For more on UFC on FOX 7, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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