Toothpicks and Title Fights

Ben has been a monster since leaving the WEC. Handily winning 5 fights and eking out another has left me appreciating him more and more. If he continues to dominate opponents the way he did against Nate Diaz, it won't be long before he's in talks for the title of greatest LW ever. Benson is 6-0 as a LW in the UFC and 3-0 in UFC LW title fights. BJ Penn is 11-3-1 as a LW in UFC bouts and 4-3-1 in UFC LW title fights. Frankie Edgar is 9-3-1 as a LW in the UFC and 3-2-1 in UFC LW title fights. Ben needs to continue to defend the title and win several more LW bouts, but he is well on his way to getting there. With Ben's experience in 25 minute fights (6-1, with 2 submissions and a total in-cage time of 139min 38 secs) it appears no fighter will have an easy win in front of them, nor will they have an experience advantage.

What's even crazier is that Ben may have fought an entire title defense with a toothpick in his mouth. There has been some significant speculation on what the athletic commission might do, now that it appears video evidence confirms this toothpick story. 

I don't know about you guys, but I'm uncertain of the commission. I can see a possible fine for bringing an unapproved object into the cage, but with athletic commissions, you never know what they might do. I would be really disappointed if they changed the result of the fight to a NC (although I think that is highly unlikely), but I'm unsure of what the commission has the option of doing. 

Anyway, just wanted to show some appreciation for Ben and ask what you guys think about the toothpick controversy (I'm sure someone will dub it toothpickgate, but it's too long of a word, and that would be really annoying).

Henderson dominated him from bell to ******* bell, with a toothpick in his mouth the whole time. Nate should be embarrassed lol

this is in-between rounds

he takes it out and ****

terrible 

My only question with this whole toothpick thing is how the hell did the ref not see it?

@poir No **** right?

That and why wouldn't his corner say something to him? They would have to be blind to have not seen it too

@poir Crouch kinda whispered while in the corner, "Put that toothpick back in your mouth." He seemed pretty annoyed that Ben had it. And now that the whole toothpick controversy has been cleared up by the athletic commission, I really don't see why we would bring it up any more unless it's to talk about how much confidence it takes to know you're gonna beat your opponent so bad you don't even need to take a toothpick out of your mouth.

What did the AC say ? I haven't read anything on that yet .

Edit: NM i just googled it http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/12/10/3753290/ufc-on-fox-5-washington-commission-not-concerned-ben-henderson-toothpick

* Edited at 12.12.2012, 11:23 AM ET *