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Now I know sherdoggers are way too sensitive, so before jimmies get rustled (probably too late), i do think Dan Henderson is one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time, a legend and one of the toughest fighters this sport has ever seen. However i think his career looks a hell a lot better than it really is thanks to questionable ref stoppages, questionable decisions, great timing in his fights and easy paths to title shots. Here's in detail:
-He defeated a young and not yet in prime Antonio Nogueira in a very controversial fight in Rings (sure, Hendo was young as well). A fight that Nogueira controlled most of the time.
Thanks to that very questionable decision win Dan Henderson went on to win the King of Kings Rings tournament and has a nice looking win over the 2nd greatest HW of all time on his record.
He went on to get finished by Nogueira in Pride when Nog was actually in his prime.
-He won both the Pride WW Grand Prix AND the Pride WW championship by beating Murilo Bustamante in a split decision.
-He was beaten by Kazuo Misaki at WW but since that fight was part of the GP tournament and not a title fight he got to keep the WW belt. Then he KO'd Wanderlei Silva (who was said to be sick and was coming off a brutal KO loss to Crocop) under unified rules, meaning 5 minute rounds and no knees and kicks to the head of a downed opponent allowed (which Wanderlei used a lot), thus allowing Hendo to get the credit for holding the WW and MW titles at the same time. All of that without being the actual the best WW in Pride and beating the MW champion under very favorable conditions.
Can't deny it's a nice pic:
-He then fought Rampage right away for the LHW title to unify the belts, lost and then got another immediate title shot against Anderson Silva to unifiy the MW belt. Technically these fights could be justified, although again Hendo wasn't the best Pride WW fighter.
-Hendo goes to Strikeforce and guess what? yup, he gets abother immediate title shot after Cung Le vacated the MW belt. He loses to Jake Shields. Then moves up to LHW, and beats an unranked Babalu to earn a title shot. He beats Calvacante and becomes the Strikeforce LHW champion.
-Being on TRT, he beats Fedor Emelianenko who was no longer in his days of glory and coming off 2 losses. You could argue the stoppage was somewhat questionable as Fedor was not entirely out and several punches to the back of the head were landed.
That being said Henderson could still have beaten/finished Fedor if the fight was allowed to continue. No excuses, but timing/PED's/ref did seem favor Henderson.
Add a win over the greatest HW ever to that resume. Honestly it's impressive...if you completely ignore the "how" and "when".
-He gets a W over Shogun Rua in a fight that pretty much everyone agrees should have been a draw as the 5th round was completely one sided in Shogun's favor. Had that round been scored 10-8, fight would have been a draw.
Judges saved the day for Hendo once again. Add another big name to the resume. Although it must be said that he did beat Shogun fair and square in the rematch (although an even more dimished one).
-Now the icing on the cake:
He gets a title shot at MW being 3-6 in his last 9 fights, after beating an unranked Hector Lombard.
Henderson isn't even top ranked himself and he gets to fight for the #1 MW spot in the world. But we all know the justification here: he KO'd Bisping and we got some hilarious memes. It's amazing to think Hendo earned his title shot 7 years ago. Now he has the chance of a lifetime. He can retire as a UFC champion; an accolade he's never had before.
GSP better stays retired cause this dude is about to replace him as the man who walked away as the undisputed UFC champion of the world (minus the 9 title defenses of course).
I can already see Hendo giving his post fight speech as the new MW champion in the world:
Bottom line:
Hendo is amazing, but he seemed to be in the right places at the right times, with the right refs/judges and on the right PED's several times. His biggest wins and resume look better on paper than they actually are. There's a reason Hendo was never a dominant champion and never defended a belt even once in his nearly 20 years of MMA career and i don't think that's a coincidence.
You don't agree with me? then ask yourself this question: How many of Henderson's big name wins can you honestly say were at their absolute peak and in a good fight shape?
As great as he is, I simply cannot think of luckier fighter than Dan Henderson.
-He defeated a young and not yet in prime Antonio Nogueira in a very controversial fight in Rings (sure, Hendo was young as well). A fight that Nogueira controlled most of the time.
Thanks to that very questionable decision win Dan Henderson went on to win the King of Kings Rings tournament and has a nice looking win over the 2nd greatest HW of all time on his record.
He went on to get finished by Nogueira in Pride when Nog was actually in his prime.
-He won both the Pride WW Grand Prix AND the Pride WW championship by beating Murilo Bustamante in a split decision.
-He was beaten by Kazuo Misaki at WW but since that fight was part of the GP tournament and not a title fight he got to keep the WW belt. Then he KO'd Wanderlei Silva (who was said to be sick and was coming off a brutal KO loss to Crocop) under unified rules, meaning 5 minute rounds and no knees and kicks to the head of a downed opponent allowed (which Wanderlei used a lot), thus allowing Hendo to get the credit for holding the WW and MW titles at the same time. All of that without being the actual the best WW in Pride and beating the MW champion under very favorable conditions.
Can't deny it's a nice pic:
-He then fought Rampage right away for the LHW title to unify the belts, lost and then got another immediate title shot against Anderson Silva to unifiy the MW belt. Technically these fights could be justified, although again Hendo wasn't the best Pride WW fighter.
-Hendo goes to Strikeforce and guess what? yup, he gets abother immediate title shot after Cung Le vacated the MW belt. He loses to Jake Shields. Then moves up to LHW, and beats an unranked Babalu to earn a title shot. He beats Calvacante and becomes the Strikeforce LHW champion.
-Being on TRT, he beats Fedor Emelianenko who was no longer in his days of glory and coming off 2 losses. You could argue the stoppage was somewhat questionable as Fedor was not entirely out and several punches to the back of the head were landed.
That being said Henderson could still have beaten/finished Fedor if the fight was allowed to continue. No excuses, but timing/PED's/ref did seem favor Henderson.
Add a win over the greatest HW ever to that resume. Honestly it's impressive...if you completely ignore the "how" and "when".
-He gets a W over Shogun Rua in a fight that pretty much everyone agrees should have been a draw as the 5th round was completely one sided in Shogun's favor. Had that round been scored 10-8, fight would have been a draw.
Judges saved the day for Hendo once again. Add another big name to the resume. Although it must be said that he did beat Shogun fair and square in the rematch (although an even more dimished one).
-Now the icing on the cake:
He gets a title shot at MW being 3-6 in his last 9 fights, after beating an unranked Hector Lombard.
Henderson isn't even top ranked himself and he gets to fight for the #1 MW spot in the world. But we all know the justification here: he KO'd Bisping and we got some hilarious memes. It's amazing to think Hendo earned his title shot 7 years ago. Now he has the chance of a lifetime. He can retire as a UFC champion; an accolade he's never had before.
GSP better stays retired cause this dude is about to replace him as the man who walked away as the undisputed UFC champion of the world (minus the 9 title defenses of course).
I can already see Hendo giving his post fight speech as the new MW champion in the world:
Bottom line:
Hendo is amazing, but he seemed to be in the right places at the right times, with the right refs/judges and on the right PED's several times. His biggest wins and resume look better on paper than they actually are. There's a reason Hendo was never a dominant champion and never defended a belt even once in his nearly 20 years of MMA career and i don't think that's a coincidence.
You don't agree with me? then ask yourself this question: How many of Henderson's big name wins can you honestly say were at their absolute peak and in a good fight shape?
As great as he is, I simply cannot think of luckier fighter than Dan Henderson.
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