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.”
