Roger Huerta’s one-fight contract with Bellator comes down to money – he wants more of it.

After Huerta’s contract with ONE Championship expired, he called Bellator President Scott Coker to see if there was interest in a new deal. The two had nearly worked together under Coker’s previous promotion – the now-defunct Strikeforce – before a manager had steered Huerta (24-9-1 MMA, 1-2 BMMA) to Bellator when it was managed by Bjorn Rebney.

As it turned out, Coker was still interested. He needed a headliner after Irish sensation James Gallagher (7-0 MMA, 4-0 BMMA) pulled out of Bellator 196 with a hand injury. He had one star replacement lined up in Benson Henderson (24-8 MMA, 1-3 BMMA), but no opponent.

Huerta was in shock to learn he might be fighting a former UFC champ for his first fight in the Viacom-owned promotion in eight years. But the four-fight deal Coker offered was…disappointing.

So Huerta proposed a counter: A one-fight contract, and if he won, more zeroes would be affixed to his pay schedule. Coker agreed, and the deal was inked.

“I think that I’m worth more, and I’m going to show that I’m worth more,” he told MMAjunkie in advance of his meeting with Henderson, which headlines Bellator 196 at BOK Hall in Budapest, Hungary. “My life is on the line.”

The event’s main card airs via same-day delay on Paramount following prelims on MMAjunkie.

Huerta is unapologetic about his demand. If he’s going to make one last run in this sport, he should be compensated well.

“I’m in this because I make a living doing this, and I only have so many years left to do this, so I want to make the most of it,” he said.

Huerta, once the poster boy for the up-and-coming MMA star, has thought a lot about what’s going to happen in the event he wins. In fact, that’s all he can see. There isn’t a scenario in his mind that he doesn’t come out ahead against Henderson, given the amount of work he’s put into his comeback.

Asked about that other scenario, the one where he falls short, he pauses.

“If I lose, well, there’s other things in life to do,” he said.

So, retirement?

“I’m definitely not retiring,” Huerta said. “I definitely can still fight.”

And to be clear, Coker doesn’t necessarily see the same possible outcomes. While Huerta most certainly won’t get a big deal with a loss, a good performance might not signal the end.

“We’ll evaluate his performance and go from there,” Coker wrote via text message.

For now, Huerta is trying to put all of that out of his mind. After a long tour overseas, he is back in the states, fighting for a major promotion against an opponent he respects. Things are looking up right now. And he’s going to win.

“There are times where I’ve felt, well, OK,” he said. “Before I fought Kenny Florian (in the UFC), I thought that I was going to lose that fight, and I lost.

“I don’t feel that this time. I really don’t. I’ve done so much. I can just see it. I can’t see me losing this one – not at all. I’ve just put in a lot of work.”

For more on Bellator 196, check out the MMA Rumors section of the site.