You might not know Benson Henderson has been operating under less-than-ideal conditions for the entirety of his three-fight Bellator career.

Granted, Henderson has lost two of those three fights (against lightweight champ Michael Chandler and former welterweight champ Andrey Koreshkov), but he didn’t look like someone competing with a serious injury. That was the case, though.

According to Henderson (24-7 MMA, 1-2 BMMA), he has been functioning with a torn “ACL, MCL, two meniscus and a bunch of loose cartilage” since prior to his unanimous-decision loss to Koreshkov at Bellator 153 in April 2016. He trudged forward and worked around the injury despite serious discomfort, but he said eventually it became too much to bare.

Henderson went under the knife in December to repair the damage following a split-decision loss to Chandler at Bellator 165 in November. Here are the highlights:

Henderson said the injury didn’t factor into the outcome, but the former UFC champ realized soon after the fight that he needed a fix.

“(The injury occurred) about two months before the Andrey Koreshkov fight, actually, but I didn’t feel like it really affected my performance,” Henderson told MMAjunkie. “I don’t make excuses. It didn’t affect any of my performances. I was able to be smart about it and train the way I wanted to for all my fights. But for the Chandler fight, it had got worse and worse and worse. Just gradually it got worse, and I wasn’t able to do certain things.

“(For) the Chandler fight, I didn’t have the training camp I wanted, and it became tougher for me to do the things I wanted to do. It become difficult for me to have the type of training camp I know I’m supposed to have. No excuses at all for whether I got my hand raised or whether I lost. But it became so hard and tough for me to maintain my output at such a high level, I knew it was time to have the surgery.”

Henderson’s procedure was complex. He said the process was made easy, though, because Bellator provided its full support. Although the promotion doesn’t have a formally announced insurance policy for its athletes like rival organization UFC does, Henderson said he received every bit of backing he could have hoped for in order to repair the injury.

In fact, Henderson praised Bellator President Scott Coker and other company executives for going above and beyond.

“Bellator has full insurance the same as the UFC; it’s another great, top class organization,” Henderson said. “They flew me out to see a specialist in San Jose, and I told them I had to have it looked at. They results were what they were. It was five days or six days before Christmas. They took care of it, paid for my hotel. They took care of me about as good as you can.

“They took care of everything. On Christmas Day I went and had lunch with Scott Coker because I was stuck in San Jose. They flew out my wife and my son for the surgery also. They took us all out to go eat lunch together. That was super meaningful to me. Not just getting a free meal, but them spending their time on Christmas Day away from their families for me to go out and have lunch. To me that meant a lot. You can’t get your time back. Someone can buy you a free meal, but someone’s time on Christmas Day? Man, that showed me a lot about the organization and the character of Bellator and Scott Coker and those guys.”

As a result of the surgery, Henderson is facing the longest layoff between fights of his more than 10 year career. He’s optimistic about his recovery period, though, and said he can get back before the timeframe suggested by doctors.

The rehabilitation process is difficult, Henderson said, and already less than six months after his procedure, he’s itching to return to competition as soon as possible. Because of that, Henderson said he’s going to push his recovery to the limit with hopes of getting back in the cage over the summer, but certainly no later than September.

“My surgeon has said nine to 12 months because it wasn’t just the ACL; it was ACL, MCL and meniscus,” Henderson said. “Because it’s everything it was, he recommends a longer layoff so I can do my due diligence with the rehab and all that stuff. He says nine to 12 months, but I’m a little bit more optimistic than that with me being the fighter I am. I’m a little bit more risky, so we’ll see.

“I want to be in there before nine months. I had surgery on Dec. 19, so basically at the beginning of the year in January is when my rehab started. If I can make it back before the ninth of September – I don’t want to push it and be crazy, but late July, maybe August. I want to have that Adrian Peterson comeback.”

For more on Bellator’s upcoming schedule, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.