At UFC Fight Night 60, welterweight Brandon Thatch discovered something the world’s best lightweights have known for years.
Benson Henderson will suck the life out of you.
Thatch was supposed to have his launch party Saturday in his home state of Colorado, beginning his ascension to contender status with a short-notice bout over the former 155-pound champion. Instead, Henderson gave him a crash course in what it takes to be one of the UFC’s best.
Obviously outsized and surely outgunned, Henderson weathered an early push from Thatch in their main event fight, eventually taking control and scoring a come-from-behind submission victory with just over a minute left in the fourth round.
He accomplished it with a formula he’s used most of his four-year run through MMA’s elite—being obstinate on the feet and deadly once the action hit the ground.
It was a shocking turn of events considering the size difference between the two and the fact Thatch had controlled the majority of the first 10 minutes. It also shook Henderson out of the doldrums of the last six months in a fashion exhilarating enough to earn him some cheers from the pro-Thatch crowd.
“I didn’t know if I could win this fight,” he admitted to play-by-play announcer Jon Anik inside the cage when it was over. “A lot of times you have to do something you don’t know (if you can do). Our biggest fear is not that we’re inadequate. Our biggest fear is that we’re powerful beyond measure.”
If the latter part of that quote is true, then Henderson seems pretty scary right now.
After a good start by Thatch, the momentum began to swing the underdog’s way in the third round, when for the first time he was able to take the bigger man to the mat. With a bit less than a minute-and-a-half gone in the period, Henderson ducked under a punch and backed Thatch against the cage with a double-leg attempt.
The two spent the next 25 seconds battling near the chain link before Henderson finally turned him toward the center and completed the takedown. In that round, Thatch defended well and, though Henderson rode his back all the way to the bell, kept good composure and staved off any threat of a submission.
In the fourth, he was not so lucky.
Thatch seemed well on his way to re-establishing dominance on the feet in the second-to-last stanza, until Henderson deftly ducked under another striking combination and blew him off his feet with a takedown at the midpoint of the round. Thatch scrambled to his feet, but Henderson dragged him down again, taking his back and forcing the tapout via slick rear-naked choke.
The loss was the first for Thatch since 2008. It snapped a string of 10 consecutive first-round victories, including two in the UFC that appeared to set the stage for big things. He was originally supposed to fight Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson in a main card bout, but after Fight Night 60 lost its main event and Thompson bowed out with injury, Thatch inherited a main event contest against Henderson.
In the first three rounds, it looked as though he would do the local fans proud. Though Henderson held his own and landed some stiff shots to the body, it seemed like only a matter of time before Thatch’s lashing punches and kicks would put the smaller man in trouble.
Whispers that perhaps Henderson had bitten off more than he could chew began to take hold:
The second saw Thatch toss Henderson to the mat with a pair of vicious trip takedowns. He also landed a high kick that appeared to sneak in past Bendo’s defenses. This was his first UFC fight to last longer than three minutes, however, and once the former champion survived the early storm and put Thatch on the ground, he exposed the 29-year-old up-and-comer’s biggest weakness.
“I knew he was going to come out like a monster in the first round—he did,” Henderson told Anik. “I was trying to use my movement. I didn’t want to run away, but dude is a big dude, so I didn’t want to stand there with him for the first five minutes. I wanted to be more elusive, and then in the second, third, fourth, fifth round, pick it up on him.”
The victory provides Henderson with a fresh burst of energy just when he needs it most. He took the bout two weeks ago and in a fit of desperation after dropping back-to-back fights at lightweight for the first time in his career. A pair of previous losses to Anthony Pettis also meant he likely wouldn’t earn a title shot in the UFC’s most competitive weight class anytime soon.
Leading up to the Thatch bout, he professed the jump to welterweight wouldn‘t be permanent. Now, in the wake of the victory, he’s not so sure. He called out top 170-pound contender Rory MacDonald in his postfight interview, and though UFC brass said MacDonald already has a different fight booked, welterweight suddenly seems an intriguing option for him.
For the first time since dropping his title to Pettis during the summer of 2013, it feels as though Henderson is on a meaningful path.
The sober, strategic move might be to head back to lightweight to continue fighting guys his own size, but after dispatching Thatch, at least Henderson finally has some interesting things to consider.
Chad Dundas covers MMA for Bleacher Report.
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