Benson Henderson makes no apologies for being UFC champ

• Henderson won a close fight to win the belt and another close one in his first title defense
• Henderson: 'I'm just doing whatever I have to do to get my hand raised'

Benson Henderson has been owner of the UFC lightweight title for almost a year now, and yet it seems like he's still trying to prove that he deserves to wear it.

In part, it's a consequence of how he won the belt.

After taking a closely contested decision victory from former champ Frankie Edgar in February, Henderson defended it some six months later in a rematch that was even closer. He emerged with a split-decision victory that kept the 155-pound title around his waist, but heading into his showdown with Nate Diaz (16-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC) on the biggest stage of his career at Saturday's UFC on FOX 5 event in Seattle's KeyArena (FOX, 8 p.m. ET), Henderson (17-2, 5-0) is still lacking that defining victory to cement his status atop the division.

"I'm just doing whatever I have to do to get my hand raised," said Henderson, who's won five straight decisions since his UFC debut in April of 2011. "If that leads to me getting guillotine [choke] submissions in the first round, cool, I'll take it. If it leads to me getting split decisions in pretty close fights, I'll take that too."

The question is: Will fans be as forgiving?

It's one thing to make your way up the UFC ladder with one close decision victory after another, but another thing to hold on to a title that way. Fight fans often want their champions to be dominant, destructive forces, and so far Henderson hasn't made that case. If that criticism bothers him, however, he won't admit it.

"The only time I hear it is when [reporters] bring it up," Henderson said. "Otherwise, I don't pay attention to it at all. Maybe I should."

Against Diaz, maybe Henderson won't have much choice. While Henderson has found success as the calculating technician who wins fights one round at time, the challenger is a brash, in-your-face scrapper who would love nothing more than to turn this network TV main event into a back-alley street fight. Henderson maintains that he looks at fighting "as a job," but for Diaz it's almost always personal, which might be a new experience for the champ.

"I've never had anything personal where I hated the guy, and his momma and everything else," Henderson said. "Everyone I've fought has been a pretty decent guy. It's never been personal for me in my fighting career. I don't think I've ever fought anyone who didn't like me as a person, either."

This time around, having an opponent who'll accept nothing less than all-out warfare could be the best thing for Henderson, who's still regarded as overly cautious by many fans. Prime time on network TV, in front of an audience of millions, would be the perfect time to finish a fight and establish his championship reign in earnest.

For Henderson, it's a legacy that will probably have to be purchased with blood – not necessarily his own. That's exactly the kind of invitation Diaz has never turned down in his eight years as a pro. Don't expect him to start now.