Dan Henderson: Lordy, Lordy
Lordy, lordy: look who's forty. Officially over the hill, Dan "Hollywood" Henderson is set to face Renato "Babalu" Sobral at Strikeforce: St Louis December 4th, in a return to light-heavyweight for the silverback warrior. The age of 40 typically betokens thoughts of baldness and beer bellies – in other words, diminished virility. Not so for Henderson: although he has not fought since his April decision loss at the hands of then-middleweight Jake Shields (who then departed for the UFC's welterweight division), Henderson is still unquestionably competitive and seriously lethal, not to mention powerful and athletic at any weight class. His last three losses were for belt contention. His last three wins were against top five fighters in two separate divisions.
Henderson is always a brutal matchup stylistically. He has one-punch knockout power thanks to his exceptionally dangerous right hook, and he is an Olympic caliber wrestler with a stifling, pummeling clinch game and excellent top control. Witness his knockouts of Michael Bisping and Wanderlei Silva, who both made huge errors that exposed themselves to Henderson's crushing right fist. If he doesn't knock his opponent unconscious, he grinds them down into frustrating decision losses. You could replace "frustrating" with "split" and that would include seven of his 25 wins, including his victorious culmination of the UFC 17 Middleweight Tournament, where he beat Carlos Newton in the final round. He might not have looked in top form when he lost to Jake Shields, but there were whisperings of a back injury – which would explain the six month layoff – and at 40, a big weight cut is much more difficult.
When Henderson loses, he does tend to lose by submission, the predictable bane of American wrestlers. Granted, in the last five years and 14 fights, he has only lost five times, and two of those were by submission: one armbar and one rear naked choke at the hands of arguably two of the best Brazilians ever to compete in MMA: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Anderson Silva. Still, it should be noted that Henderson easily snuffed the last submission artist he faced, Rousimar Palhares, at UFC 88. The old dog may have some new tricks up his...er, pelt.
Dan Henderson may be a recent Strikeforce acquisition, but his bread and butter was the now-defunct PRIDE Fighting Championships, where he fought in their welterweight (middleweight) and middleweight (light-heavyweight) divisions, as well as in their never-to-be-rivaled Grand Prix events (several multi-event tournaments which were round robin, winner take all formats). His PRIDE resume is a veritable who's who of the last decade's MMA greats, including the Nogueira brothers, Wanderlei Silva, Ricardo Arona, Yuki Kondo, Kazuo Misaki, Vitor Belfort and Kazuhiro Nakamura. You'll notice a few of these guys currently compete in the UFC. Henderson crossed the pond after a decade in Japan to compete in back to back fights to unify the UFC and PRIDE belts. Why? Because he had belts in two PRIDE weight classes simultaneously, a feat still yet to be matched by any other MMA fighter thus far. He failed to unify either, losing to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Anderson "Spider" Silva in consecutive fights. Nevertheless, surviving five rounds with "Rampage", surviving one and change against Anderson Silva in your debut and then second fight (without a tune-up/can) in the promotion...is understated, nothing to sneeze at.
Dan has been fighting pro since 1997. Affiliated with Team Quest, alongside notable veterans like Matt Lindland, Chael Sonnen, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, and the up-and-coming Krzysztof Soszynski, Henderson's most notable wins were against Michael Bisping and Rich Franklin in the UFC (at middleweight and light-heavyweight respectively). Henderson is 0-1 in Strikeforce, 3-2 in the UFC, and went 13-5 in PRIDE.
> Find historic Strikeforce results listed on Pro Fighting Fans, buy Strikeforce MMA tickets or check out the upcoming Strikeforce schedule of events!
By Roy Kok
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer