What on Earth is in his mouth?

FACING the best-trained fighters in the world isn’t dangerous enough for Benson Henderson. He feels the need to do so with a sharp choking hazard in his mouth.

What on Earth is in his mouth?

EVIDENTLY, facing the best-trained professional fighters in the world isn’t dangerous enough for Benson Henderson, and he feels the need to do so with a small, sharp choking hazard in his mouth.

Henderson fought for just under 19 minutes with a toothpick somewhere in his mouth.

And it’s not the first time he’s done it either.

“I normally do (fight with a toothpick in my mouth), yeah. I have it in practices, when I spar and when I fight. It’s a bad habit, but whatever ... I’ve gotten away with it so far,” Henderson has said in the past.

Stepping in to face Brandon Thatch on just two weeks’ notice, Henderson fought much more aggressively than he did in his previous fight, not even a full month ago against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in Boston.

That aggression served him well, but the size and strength disparity between him and the young, 6-foot-2 welterweight was easy to see. Thatch landed big power shots to Henderson’s head and body and scored trip takedowns seemingly at will over three rounds.

However, Henderson managed to survive those shots and adversity, and took full advantage once he got the upper hand.

In the third, Henderson stole the round with a hard-fought takedown, followed by back control and threatening with a rear naked choke.

In the fourth, Henderson finished up a sharp punch combination with another double-leg takedown.

Henderson once more took Thatch’s back, and this time he finished the fight from the dominant position.

Henderson insisted on the rear naked choke, pulled his much larger opponent backwards onto him, locked in the hold and forced the tap-out.

Henderson has a stack of world title wins in his résumé, but this fight, on short notice and against a much larger opponent, has to rank high on his list of accomplishments. However, in typical Henderson fashion, he insisted that every fight is the biggest.

“Every win you get ... is the most important win of your career,” he said afterward.

That said, the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blackbelt acknowledged that when he accepted the fight against Thatch, he did so simply to challenge himself, and not because he was sure he would win. “Sometimes you’ve got to test yourself,” he said.

“I didn’t know I was going to win this fight.”

Henderson doesn’t appear to be done taking on big challenges at welterweight, either. MacDonald, the No. 1 challenger at 170 pounds, was set to face Hector Lombard at UFC 186 until Lombard was removed from the bout because of a failed steroid screening. Henderson made it known he wants to replace Lombard against MacDonald.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.