Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC

The difference between three rounds of mixed martial arts and five rounds of mixed martial arts is the difference between a sprint and a distance run.

Last night UFC lightweight, Benson Henderson went from surviving to thriving in the space of ten minutes as the gigantic welterweight, Brandon Thatch poured on the pressure in the second round, wilted midway through the third, and fell by the wayside as just another victim of Henderson's pace in the fourth round.

Thatch was returning from a year out from injury, and hoping to continue his tremendous streak of first round stoppages. No fight of Thatch's had gone past the first round since 2008. The general consensus was that if Henderson took Thatch past the first round, he'd be able to deliver a sizeable knock to Thatch's confidence.

The first round was marked by Henderson circling the ring, while Thatch followed. Whenever Henderson found himself along the fence, and knew that one of those Thatch flurries into a knee strike was coming, he'd lead back against the fence and use his lead leg to push kick Thatch away. That small bump away was enough for Henderson to circle out on most occasions throughout the fight.

Henderson also found success with his lead (right, as he's a southpaw) hook to the body. Body work is something you always want to see out of high endurance fighters because it steepens the slope that the opponent will be fighting up in the later rounds.

But in the second round, Thatch began to have great success with long straights, bullying Henderson in the hand fight, and in the brief clinch exchanges it seemed as though Henderson was too small to trouble Thatch. The strength differential was tremendous.

Notice in the above instance, Henderson ducks under to spin Thatch so that the two have reversed positions—a veteran move. When Henderson ducks under Thatch's spinning backfist, he had every mechanical and positional advantage and Thatch was still strong enough to recover and trip Henderson to the mat.

As the rounds progressed though, Thatch's eyes began to swell and his breathing became more labored. Henderson flicked back handed jabs at Thatch's eye before thudding in the right hook to the body. By the fourth round, both were going about even on the feet, though Thatch was slowing at a far more obvious rate.

That being said, even in the fourth round Thatch was easily stuffing Henderson's takedown attempts. The change came as Henderson found some success in exchanges with the slowing welterweight, and convinced him that they were going to have a boxing match in four-ounce gloves. Slipping, weaving, stepping in on power punches, Henderson announced his intention to stay in Thatch's wheelhouse. As Thatch engaged in a pure striking contest, Henderson ducked under and easily got in on Thatch's hips

Landing in the half butterfly guard (though for most, it's less a guard and more the last stop before getting crushed), Henderson went full Georges St. Pierre as he forced his way to half guard and performed a no hands pass from there. Thatch gave his back and Henderson the two fought for a while before Henderson sunk in the rear naked choke.

It was another lesson in the difference between dangerous prospect and elite combat sports athlete. Just as he had done with Rustam Khabilov, Henderson demonstrated that there's a lot more to mixed martial arts than just being a scary momentum fighter.

There were a few interesting moments elsewhere on the card, though it wasn't a particularly strong one. In the co-main event Max Holloway showed his slick striking, as usual, but struggled a little with being the shorter man for the first time in his UFC tenure. Where Holloway, at his best, is about hooking off the jab, landing long body shots and knees, against a taller opponent he was forced to get in close to do his job.

As a guy who isn't used to ducking or slipping, it ended up with Holloway standing upright and managing to butt Miller several times through the bout. I say butt, it was more a clash of heads. The art of a good butt is in getting the hard part of the upper forehead to connect while your face is pointing downwards, Holloway was simply coming in with his face and his forehead was colliding with Miller's brow. It was clumsy and unfortunate, but I doubt there was sinister intent there.

Holloway's combination work throughout, while not a case of one strike setting up the next perfectly, was fun to watch and certainly creative. In the latter stages of the third round, struggling to land effectively on Miller, Holloway went southpaw and started performing some interesting follow ups to the classic slight angle out and left straight.

Tim Elliot versus Zach Makovsky, meanwhile, provided a back and forth grappling extravaganza. Whether it was Tim Elliot attempting a Samoan drop and successfully using it to reverse momentum, or this attempt at that classic response to the back mount if you don't know any grappling, it was not your standard MMA match.

Though the way Makovsky's head bounced off the mat suggested it wasn't a completely harmless effort.

But amid all the momentum shifts, it was Makovsky's knee cut pass straight into the mounted crucifix that really had me excited. It was just beautiful adaptation and technique.

Last night's card was far from disappointing despite the lack of star power in most bouts. I can only hope that the even less anticipated Mir versus Bigfoot card can pleasantly surprise us all in the same way.

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