For a guy who retired over a year ago, Benson Henderson sure is fighting a lot these days.
While his MMA career came to a close back in March 2023, the former UFC lightweight champion is somehow busier than ever after competing in several grappling tournaments and even a Karate Combat fight against old foe Anthony Pettis this past December. On Saturday, Henderson becomes the latest MMA fighter to cross over to a new combat sport after inking a deal to join Misfits Boxing for a one-night tournament taking place in Newcastle, England.
It turns out, Henderson always wanted to test himself in boxing so this really was the perfect opportunity to try but he also has plenty of plans for the future with hopes to stay busy doing pretty much anything other than MMA.
“I think how it came about was social media,” Henderson told MMA Fighting about his introduction to Misfits Boxing. “Somebody reached out to somebody and they contacted a manager here in the UK and the manager said ‘I know his brother-in-law’ so he contacted my sister-in-law and she hit me up and said ‘hey, what do you think about boxing? I said sure, no problem, of course. I’ve always said I wanted to do it.
“I always said I wanted to do boxing. I will do a Muay Thai fight in Thailand. I’m going to show up and I’m going to take my kids on a family vacation, I’m not even going to tell my wife, [I’ll just show up] maybe take a week or two weeks to train out there. So I’m going to fight in Thailand doing Muay Thai. I’d love to do a sambo tournament. I want to do a Kyokushin karate tournament. I can still do wrestling. I want to do all of it. I was going to do Masters Worlds [in Brazilian jiu-jitsu] but I got the call to do this and Masters Worlds was this weekend in Vegas so I couldn’t do that. Next year, I’m going to do that. Just go compete, go have fun. You know me, I like to get after it. I like to still get out there, get after it, have some fun.”
That’s a whole lot of activity for a guy who’s supposed to be retired but Henderson never said he was going to stop competing — he just has no plans to do MMA again.
In fact, Henderson actually relishes the chance to do less right now while his wife Maria finally takes the time to pursue her own career in MMA.
“I’m enjoying retirement,” Henderson said. “I’m enjoying having time to pick and choose what I do. I love to go do Polaris [grappling] some more, I’d love to do ADCC, go do all the grappling tournaments. Have fun with that Combat jiu-jitsu hit me up, me and Joe Riggs are going to go be on a card. Karate Combat. It’s nice to pick and choose, still train hard, still train to be the best in the world but now I’m not training seven days, 365 days a year.
“Now I’m training for a month before a boxing match. Training a month before a jiu-jitsu tournament. A month before a wrestling tournament. I train for a month. I trained really hard to be the best in the world but now it’s my wife’s turn, now it’s Maria’s turn to train 100 percent seriously.”
That may sound like a tough transition but Henderson always saw this coming.
Once his wife started fighting, Henderson knew it was only a matter of time before he pumped the brakes on his career and allowed her to pursue her dream. While Henderson still loves training and goes to the gym as often as possible, he’s letting Maria spend day after day getting ready for her next fight and he gets to play Mr. Mom.
“Now it’s my turn to go home, take the kids to school,” Henderson said. “It’s my job to take them to chess practice, pick them up from chess practice. All that different stuff. It’s now my wife’s turn to train year long so she can improve and fight. Hopefully she has a fight soon. We’d love to get her in LFA again.”
In his first boxing match, Henderson actually faces a stiff test going up against fellow UFC and Bellator veteran Chris Avila, who didn’t always have the most impressive MMA career but he’s rattled off six straight wins in boxing including victories over Anthony Pettis, Jeremy Stephens and Anthony Taylor.
Henderson definitely anticipates winning the fight and then moving onto the finals in the Mixfits Boxing tournament but more than anything, he just wants to enjoy himself in the ring.
“Being able to delve into the world of the sweet science of boxing has been awesome,” Henderson said. “It’s been super fun. It’s been refreshing.”
The whole process working with Misfits has been a joy so Henderson says he would gladly return there to fight again after his debut on Saturday.
But don’t expect him to just stick with boxing, even if Henderson wins, because he’s got plenty of options available and he seemingly wants to try just about everything.
“The one-offs for me, whether it’s Misfits Boxing or Polaris or Eddie Bravo or [Combat Jiu-Jitsu] or whatever the case may be, it’s time for me to go have fun,” Henderson said. “To get after it. To go lay it on the line and do my thing.”
It’s called a paycheck! When they do it for free then they can speak to the “love” of the sport bla bla bla.
Benson Henderson may have retired from MMA in 2023 but he never stopped competing.
Whether that was boxing in Misfits, throwing down in Karate Combat or even taking a freestyle wrestling match in RAF, the now 42-year-old veteran was as active as any fighter but he just wasn’t doing MMA any longer. But when the PFL reached out to him about potentially returning for a showdown against rising star Patrick Habirora at the upcoming card in Brussels on Saturday, he was initially hesitant to accept until one executive just kept after him about making a comeback.
“My man Mike Kogan, the head matchmaker for Bellator now the head matchmaker for PFL, great guy, I love him, he’s always done me right,” Henderson explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “But he texted me, he needled me a couple of times like ‘oh man, Henderson guys online are talking smack, saying this, saying that’ and I’m like people can say whatever, it’s cool, no big deal. They’re saying you don’t have it anymore. You lost your jiu-jitsu match and won one in boxing and lost one in boxing, you lost Karate Combat, it was a split decision, super close but you lost that one. I told him, I don’t care. People have been after me my whole career. I’ve done all right. People are allowed to have their opinion.
“But he kept needling me a couple more times and then he texted me two days later and said ‘hey, I’ve got a matchup for you, Patrick Habirora, why don’t you remind the world who you are, what you did and what you can do. You know what? Sounds good, Kogan. I noticed what you did but sure, let’s do it. Let’s remind the world who I am and what I’ve done and how I do it. That sounds good to me.”
Henderson inked the deal for the main event matchup but unlike many fighters in a similar position, he never truly stepped away from the sport.
He was always coaching at his gym, The MMA Lab in Arizona, and he stayed plenty active with all of his other competitions. So technically he’s fighting for the first time in three years but Henderson was still battling it out with veterans, prospects and anyone in between on almost a daily basis at the gym.
“Since the day I retired, I was back in the gym the next week, on the mats training again,” Henderson said. “Our whole thing at The MMA Lab is being the hardest working gym in the world. You guys want to be the prettiest [gym]. You guys want to be the loudest on social media? You want to be the stoner gym? Be the stoner gym. My gym? We’re going to be the hardest working gym in the world.
“We’re always right back. We fight on Saturdays and back in the gym on Monday working to get better, win or lose, it doesn’t matter. So I lost my fight against Usman [Nurmagomedov], I was back in the gym on Monday, working on getting better. I never stopped. I never stopped training.”
Right now, Henderson is just days away from his main event spot at PFL Brussels and he doesn’t want to think too far beyond that but he’s not closing the door on fighting again.
A big part in his initial retirement was allowing his wife the time she needed to focus on her own fighting career after she was by his side for so many years while Henderson was competing in the UFC and Bellator.
Unfortunately, injuries and time off have slowed down his wife’s career and when this opportunity to return in PFL came along, Henderson obviously accepted.
That’s why Henderson is taking a wait and see approach but there’s a good chance his comeback continues beyond this one fight on Saturday.
“For me, my mindset, 100% I’m just focused on Patrick,” Henderson said. “He’s a good up and comer. He has a lot of potential. I think it’s a little bit early for him to fight someone of my experience level but his coaches are very confident. They think he’s ready for that big step up, for that big test and we’ll find out this Saturday, May 23.
“My mindset after I beat Patrick, after the referee pulls me off of him, my mindset is more along the lines of whatever comes. It was a three fight deal with PFL but I’m not itching to fight this guy or that guy. I’m not looking to get another belt around my waist. I’m not looking to add anymore to that. I’ll take it a fight at a time but after I beat up Patrick, he’s ranked somewhere in those rankings, if they offer me something after, that, sure no problem. I’m open to it. I like to compete. I will compete until my body won’t allow me anymore.”
Wasn’t benson one of those guys that said he would retire young? Seemed like around the Frankie fight he said something like that.
This guy will always be remembered for getting kicked in the face by the matrix cage kick and fighting with a toothpick in his mouth (wtf).
Absolutely love this guy
So he didn’t retire and they still wrote 5 pages about him being retired. Anyone know the time for the show? I may have already retired. Or maybe not.
Khamzat dude is such an asshole
He is gonna get destroyed today by Poclit
Joe schilling is on this card
It’s on espn+, which you get if your wife has the disney hulu addon, i learned.
Schilling just freaked out and quit