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History · 2012 · UFC on FOX: Henderson vs Diaz · Benson Henderson vs Nate Diaz
From the tape · 8 Dec 2012

Benson Henderson vs Nate Diaz

UFC on FOX: Henderson vs Diaz · Seattle, Washington, USA
Result

Benson Henderson beat Nate Diaz

Method
Decision - Unanimous
Round
5 of 5
Clock
5:00
Lightweight TitleTitle fightMainReferee · Herb Dean

We published no prediction for this bout. Everything on this page is the official record and the tape it was fought on — the result, the round-by-round counts, the judges’ cards where they exist and the sportsbook line where one was published. Our graded calls start in 2026 and live on the public record.

BH
Red corner BensonHenderson“Smooth”MMA Lab · Glendale, Arizona
VSOn the tape
ND
Blue corner NateDiazCesar Gracie Fight Team · Stockton, California
Lightweight Title5 rounds8 Dec 2012
The story going in
  • Comes in on a 5-fight win streak.
  • Comes in on a 3-fight win streak.
  • Carries 22 points more takedown defence than Diaz.
  • Has finished 9 of 11 UFC wins.
24-7
Record
22-13
29
Age
−2 yr27
5' 9"
Height
+3″6' 0"
70″
Reach
+6″76″
Southpaw
Stance
Southpaw
5
UFC bouts
+1116
0/50% of wins
Finishes
+82%9/1182% of wins
MMA Lab
Gym
Cesar Gracie Fight Team
Glendale, Arizona
From
Stockton, California
Vitals, record, nickname and camp come from the public UFC fighter register and are current, not a snapshot of fight night. UFC bouts, finish rate and every storyline line are counted off the official UFC fight record. A tick marks the side holding the raw edge in that row — longer reach, taller, younger, more bouts, a higher finish rate. It is a fact about the tape, not a prediction, and rows with no clean comparison (record, stance, gym, hometown) carry no tick at all. Any row we cannot fill on both sides is left out rather than half-drawn. Streaks, bout counts and finish rates are as they stood going into this fight — this bout and everything after it is excluded from the count.

Round by round

Every round the fight went, shaded by where the significant strikes actually landed — the takedowns, control time and knockdowns beside them, and how the three judges scored that round.

UFCStats · per round

5 rounds of tape

Round 15:00 of action
Benson Henderson27 sig landed
HEAD44%12 of 15BODY19%5 of 6LEGS37%10 of 11
Nate Diaz15 sig landed
HEAD13%2 of 12BODY47%7 of 10LEGS40%6 of 6
27 of 32
Sig.
strikes
15 of 28
1 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 2
2:37
Control
0:38
0
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 7Clinch 10Ground 10
Where it
happened
Distance 1Clinch 14Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstSal D'Amato10–9Dave Hagen10–9Marcos Rosales10–9
Round 25:00 of action
Benson Henderson28 sig landed
HEAD46%13 of 29BODY21%6 of 8LEGS32%9 of 10
Nate Diaz6 sig landed
HEAD33%2 of 19BODY33%2 of 3LEGS33%2 of 2
28 of 47
Sig.
strikes
6 of 24
1 of 1
Take-
downs
0 of 2
2:37
Control
0:02
0
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 11Clinch 7Ground 10
Where it
happened
Distance 2Clinch 4Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstSal D'Amato10–9Dave Hagen10–9Marcos Rosales10–9
Round 35:00 of action⚡ 1 KD Henderson2 sub attempts
Benson Henderson21 sig landed
HEAD62%13 of 28BODY29%6 of 6LEGS10%2 of 5
Nate Diaz2 sig landed
HEAD100%2 of 12BODY0%0 of 1LEGS0%0 landed
21 of 39
Sig.
strikes
2 of 13
2 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 1
3:33
Control
0:02
1
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
2
Distance 5Clinch 1Ground 15
Where it
happened
Distance 2Clinch 0Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstSal D'Amato10–9Dave Hagen10–9Marcos Rosales10–9
Round 45:00 of action
Benson Henderson24 sig landed
HEAD50%12 of 21BODY29%7 of 8LEGS21%5 of 5
Nate Diaz1 sig landed
HEAD0%0 of 5BODY100%1 of 2LEGS0%0 landed
24 of 34
Sig.
strikes
1 of 7
3 of 3
Take-
downs
0 of 0
4:05
Control
0:00
0
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 2Clinch 3Ground 19
Where it
happened
Distance 0Clinch 1Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstSal D'Amato10–9Dave Hagen10–9Marcos Rosales10–8
Round 55:00 of actionEnded 5:00
Benson Henderson24 sig landed
HEAD54%13 of 33BODY21%5 of 5LEGS25%6 of 8
Nate Diaz6 sig landed
HEAD33%2 of 7BODY33%2 of 2LEGS33%2 of 2
24 of 46
Sig.
strikes
6 of 11
1 of 2
Take-
downs
0 of 1
4:06
Control
0:02
0
Knock-
downs
0
0
Sub
attempts
0
Distance 1Clinch 10Ground 13
Where it
happened
Distance 0Clinch 6Ground 0
Judges · this round · Henderson firstSal D'Amato10–9Dave Hagen10–9Marcos Rosales10–8

Significant strikes, takedowns, control time, knockdowns and submission attempts exactly as UFCStats recorded them for this bout, round by round. Zone percentages are that round’s landed head, body and leg counts over their own total — raw arithmetic, nothing modelled or smoothed. A round in which a fighter landed nothing shades empty and reads zero; it is never filled in from the round before.

The cards, totalled

The judges’ final totals, the media’s cards beside them, and how these judges usually score. Their round-by-round 10–9s are with the rounds above.

Official card

Unanimous Decision

Referee · Herb Dean
Benson HendersonNate Diaz
Official totals — Benson Henderson first
JudgeTotal
Sal D'Amato2.1 avg spread · 46% wide50–45
Dave Hagen2.0 avg spread · 45% wide50–45
Marcos Rosales2.2 avg spread · 51% wide50–43

Each judge’s round-by-round scores sit with the round they belong to, in the round-by-round section above — switch a round there and the three cards for it change with the stats.

Media cards — 11 scored, Benson Henderson first · unofficial

Adam Martin Sportsnet.ca50–44
Matthew Roth BleacherReport.com50–45
MM AJunkie.com50–45
MM AWeekly.com50–45
Tim Burke BloodyElbow.com50–45
Dave Doyle MMAFighting.com50–45
Nathan McCarter BleacherReport.com50–45
Fight Metric.com50–45
Jordan Breen Sherdog.com50–45
TJ DeSantis Sherdog.com50–45
Chris Nelson Sherdog.com50–45

Fan vote · unofficial

50-45 Henderson · 40%50-44 Henderson · 20%50-43 Henderson · 17%50-45 Diaz · 5%50-42 Henderson · 5%

87 fan cards submitted to MMA Decisions.

Official cards come from the UFCStats fight record and MMA Decisions. Media cards and the fan vote are MMA Decisions’ own collection and are not official. Judge tendency figures are that judge’s whole recorded history, not this bout — they are context for how a card was scored, never a claim that it was scored wrongly.

Takedowns

Takedowns

The level change — head to head

Career UFC takedown rates. Red corner left, blue corner right.

Benson Henderson

2.40takedowns / 15 min
2.40 / 15m
TAKEDOWNS
1.05 / 15m
5.33 / 15m
ATTEMPTS
3.50 / 15m
45%
ACCURACY
30%
0.80 / 15m
SUB ATT
1.30 / 15m

Nate Diaz

1.05takedowns / 15 min

Career UFC takedown rates exactly as UFCStats publishes them: takedowns landed per 15 minutes, completion rate, submission attempts per 15 minutes, and the share of takedowns tried on them that they stuffed. Attempts per 15 is the one derived figure — landed ÷ completion rate — and it is omitted wherever either input is missing. UFCStats writes 0% where no attempt was recorded at all, so a percentage of exactly zero reads “n/a” here rather than as a measured rate. “Field” is the average fighter in that weight class, or across every division where a class is too small to average. Rate bars run to the population’s 95th percentile (4.97 takedowns / 15m); a fighter above it pins the bar. Percentages are drawn on their own axis.

Ranked in Welterweight

The market story

Where the price started and where it finished — the sportsbook consensus, with the vig removed. We captured no price series for this bout, so there is no chart to draw.

Benson Henderson↑ +6.4pp
open 59.2%close 65.5%
Nate Diaz↓ −6.4pp
open 40.8%close 34.5%
0%50%100%
OpenClosing consensus (BFO, vig removed)

Benson Henderson opened at 59.2% and closed at 65.5% (+6.4pp), with Nate Diaz moving the other way by the same amount — the two are one de-vigged pair, so they always sum to 100%. There is no line between those two points because nobody recorded one: we hold the open and the close for this bout, not the days in between.

Show the numbers
CornerOpen (US)Close (US)Open %Close %Move
Benson Henderson-170-21259.2%65.5%+6.4pp
Nate Diaz13018040.8%34.5%−6.4pp
Opening and closing moneylines from BestFightOdds (data/refs/bfo_fighter_moneylines.csv), one row per fighter per bout, de-vigged pairwise so the two corners sum to 100% · scraped 2026-06-10. No price series was captured for this bout, so no line is drawn between the two points.
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