Ben Henderson is making his welterweight debut on short notice next weekend at UFC Fight Night 60. He'll be taking on Brandon Thatch, which is a pretty tough test for your debut in a weight class. Henderson spoke to Duane Finley of Bleacher Report about getting the late notice fight, mentioning that he has asked for them a lot in the past but the fights always seemed to go to another WEC alum, Donald Cerrone:

"I've asked the UFC plenty of times over the past few years for anything I could get short notice, and I was always surprised how Cowboy gets these fights. I've asked time and time again when there was a situation available. I would see someone get hurt then hit up Dana [White] and Joe Silva to let them know I'm willing to take the fight, and the answer was always no."

Henderson met the aforementioned Cowboy for the third time at UFC Fight Night 59 last month. He dropped a close decision in that bout. Later in the interview, he sort of answered his own question about why he might not have been selected as often for those late-replacement spots:

"I was already bugging Joe about me taking a short notice fight. I told him 155 would be hard for me to make on short notice. Physically I could do it, but I wouldn't perform well making that weight on one or two weeks' notice. But if you have a short notice fight for me at 170, I'm all for it. We've been thinking about dabbling at 170 for awhile and seeing how it works out for us, and it just so happened that they needed it. Joe Silva text me last Saturday a few fights before Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz fight, and he wanted to know how serious I was about taking a short notice fight at 170. I told him I'll take whatever he was offering. "I'm not one of those guys who just talks the talk," he added. "I actually back it up. Joe offered up Denver, Colorado, against Brandon Thatch in a main event. I said, 'Cool. Let's do it.'"

He will be looking to break a two-fight losing streak in the bout, the first such streak of his career. UFC Fight Night 60 takes place in the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, CO on February 14th.