Feature12 October 2007
DAN HENDERSON
After losing a tough fight to Rampage, what's next for the first ever double-champ in UFC, Pride and MMA history?
Ever since the Fertitta brothers purchased Pride Fighting Championships in May, casting the organisation into limbo, the UFC has been slowly but inexorably bringing all of the Japanese promotion's top fighters into its ranks, picking the bones of Pride clean in the process. But while Zuffa has just signed Wanderlei Silva, and two former Pride competitors are now UFC Champions (Anderson Silva and Quinton Rampage Jackson), in September the UFC fans got their first look at the only man in MMA history to simultaneously hold titles in two different weight divisions - Dan Henderson.
His fight with Quinton Jackson at UFC 75 was billed as a unification bout but, with Pride on hiatus, they were really fighting for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title and 205-pound bragging rights. On fight night, Hendo and Jackson were so closely matched it was like they were twins, the result being a lot of time spent tussling in the clinch and wrestling on the floor. After the final bell, Rampage took the unanimous decision, but there was scarcely a hair's breadth to separate the warriors. Jackson kept his belt but, when it comes to Henderson making his presence felt in the UFC, he's only just begun.
STRAIGHT OUT OF DIAPERS
Dan Henderson has been wrestling almost since he could walk, starting at just five years old. He grew up in Apple Valley, California and, while he tried his hand at baseball and American football in high school, his first love was always wrestling. It can't have hurt that his dad, Bill, is a wrestling coach (who would later train fellow UFC fighter Joe Daddy Stevenson) and Dan won the high school nationals in his senior year.
He made the US Olympic team for Greco-Roman in 1992 and 1996, but never made it to the medal podium. And yet, despite representing his country at the highest level, there was no future for him in wrestling. Unfortunately, as the number one ranked wrestler, in the country I only made $650 per month, Henderson wrote on his MySpace page. He was planning on studying to become a chiropractor, but instead he got a phone call about an opportunity to rearrange people's bones in an entirely different manner.
Rico Chiapparelli was a former NCAA Champion and, after watching the early UFC shows, realised that this was a combat sport where wrestlers would excel. He decided to put together an MMA team and called Randy Couture, who knew Dan from the Olympic squad (on which The Natural was an alternate). Couture joined Chiapparelli's Real American Wrestling team, shortened to the catchy acronym RAW, and called up Henderson.
Shortly afterwards, Couture made his debut at UFC 13 while Hendo, with just two weeks of training in MMA, headed down to Brazil for the Brazil Open 97. At this time, his only experience of the stand-up game was punching the heavy bag and the focus mitts - he'd never done any boxing sparring at all. Fighting at 175 pounds, Dan beat his first opponent by TKO via ground and pound, then the second with a guillotine choke, earning $12,000 for the night's work. Chiropractor school be damned; he was going to fight for a living.
And that's just what he did. Back in the US he entered the middleweight tournament bracket at UFC 17, where he defeated BJJ black belt Allan Goes and then submission wizard Carlos Newton, both by decision. Two tournaments and two titles in a row marked Henderson as a fighter to watch but, unfortunately, the furore surrounding the UFC in the United States (memorably branded as human cockfighting by Senator and would-be president John McCain) cast the sport into temporary obscurity, unable to find pay-per-view carriers.
GO EAST, MY SON
This was before Zuffa bought the floundering promotion and set about re-branding the UFC, and times were incredibly dark in the Octagon. So Henderson packed up his gloves and headed to Japan for the now sadly defunct Rings promotion. After starting life as a U-style pro wrestling group, founded by the legendary Akira Maeda, Rings evolved into a legitimate mixed martial arts promotion and went on to stage its own tournament, King Of Kings, with the first round taking place in October 1999.
Numerous future stars started their careers fighting for Rings, including the current number one heavyweight in the world (and elusive Pride Champion), Fedor Emelianenko. The King Of Kings tourney was an openweight event, so Henderson frequently found himself facing opponents with sizeable weight advantages. But with his world-class wrestling skills and fighter's heart, he tore his way through the competition to conquer his block of the tournament. And returning in February 2000 for the finals, he beat some of the very best fighters that the sport has to offer.
He defeated the incredibly dangerous (and dirty) Dutch striker Gilbert Yvel by decision then, in the semi-finals, he faced none other than future Pride Heavyweight Champion and current UFC star, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Facing a legitimate heavyweight who was also a BJJ black belt and the star member of Brazilian Top Team, Dan proved his mettle and beat Nogueira by split decision, which put him in the finals against Renato Babalu Sobral. At this point, Babalu was on a nine-fight winning streak and was undefeated in professional competition, but Hendo outclassed him to take the majority decision and claim his third tournament title.
In the same year that Henderson was crowned the King Of Kings, Matt Lindland won the silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Like Couture and Henderson before him, he was faced with the quandary of translating his skills on the mat into a means of earning a living. Lindland bought a used car dealership in Gresham, Oregon and used the space at the back of the premises to put together a rather Spartan gym. He invited Couture and Henderson to join him and Team Quest was born.
With three Olympic-level wrestlers heading up the gym, no one should have been surprised that Team Quest quickly established itself as one of the top camps in the country - and it wasn't long before its members were grounding and pounding their way to World Titles. However, after his succession of tournament wins in the UFC, Rings and Brazil, Dan now faced a long, hard road to his next championship prize.
THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
In December of 2000, Henderson made his debut in Pride at Cold Fury. At the Saitama Super Arena, in front of over 28,000 fans, Henderson took on Brazil's Axe Murderer, Wanderlei Silva, carrying a considerable weight advantage. Hendo rocked Silva with punches but couldn't put him away, and in the end the Brazilian dominated the fight and took the decision victory, giving Dan his first loss in three years and ten fights. He later said that he was out of shape for the fight and, watching it now, it was his conditioning that let him down that night.
In his next three contests, Henderson took on fighters who were closer to his own weight and the results were impressive. He knocked out Renzo Gracie so fast that it required slow motion replays to make it clear how he'd done it; as Renzo shot in looking for a takedown, Dan caught him with a perfectly timed uppercut that dropped the Ju-Jitsu master cold (on first sight it looked as though Renzo went for the shot but then thought better of it and opted for a quick kip instead).
Next up, Hendo stopped the hugely durable Japanese journeyman Akira Shoji by TKO at Pride 14, and it's worth bearing in mind that Shoji went the distance with Mark Coleman (the hulking heavyweight who invented ground and pound) in Pride's First Grand Prix in 2000. This was followed up by a decision win over Chute Boxe's Murilo Ninja Rua before he suffered his second loss, by decision, against Ricardo Arona - another opponent who enjoyed a weight advantage over the American wrestler.
A rematch followed with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which ended in the third round when Minotauro caught Henderson in an armbar, forcing the tap. But it wasn't long before Dangerous Dan got back into his groove with knockouts of Shungo Oyama and Nogueira's BTT stablemate Murilo Bustamante - the UFC Middleweight Champion who forfeited his title to fight in Pride (oh, how times have changed!). Dan's winning rampage continued four fights and even claimed Pancrase Champion Yuki Kondo, before Antonio Rogerio Nogueira stopped him with an armbar, repeating his twin brother's success.
JEWELLERY COLLECTION
After that fight, Henderson moved to Pride's Bushido subsidiary, a stream of shows dedicated to showcasing the lighter weight classes. No longer taking on guys who regularly outweighed him by 20-40 pounds, he entered Pride's first welterweight tournament. It took him just 22 seconds to send Ryo Chonan to dreamland in the opening round, demolishing the warrior who had soundly beaten the deadly Anderson Silva.
Showman and Ally McBeal fan Akihiro Gono lasted a little longer, but succumbed to Henderson's furious punching and hit the canvas at 7:58 of the opening ten-minute round. In the final at Pride Shockwave 2005, Dan faced Murilo Bustamante in a rematch. This time they went to the final bell, with Hendo taking the split decision and becoming the promotion's first Welterweight Champion. It had taken him half a decade and 14 fights in Pride to claim a title in what was, at that time, the biggest MMA organisation on the planet. But he wanted more bling for his ever-growing MMA jewellery box
Ten months later he went up to 205 pounds and took a unanimous decision over Vitor Belfort at Pride 32, before squaring off against old nemesis Wanderlei Silva for the second time at Pride 33. The Brazilian was coming off a devastating KO loss to Mirko Cro Cop, but he had enjoyed an extraordinary run as Pride Middleweight Champion. Having held the title for five years, his only losses since beating Henderson back in 2000 were by decision, against Ricardo Arona and the massive heavyweight Mark Hunt, who outweighed him by over 80 pounds.
Since winning the title Silva had knocked out Quinton Jackson twice, beaten the living daylights out of Kazuyuki Fujita and flattened a legion of Japanese fighters, including Ikuhisa Minowa and Yuki Kondo. With a no-prisoners style based on his pitiless aggression and lethal Muay Thai, he was widely considered the top 205-pounder in the world - but Henderson was hungry for a second Pride belt. The fight went back and forth until Hendo staggered Silva with a spinning backfist in the third round, followed by an iron left hook that sent Silva to the canvas in a heap.
Henderson became the first man in Pride and MMA history to hold championships in two weight classes simultaneously. Then the Fertitta brothers bought Pride and everything was thrown into chaos.
BACK TO THE OCTAGON
Henderson's only appearance in the Octagon had been his UFC 17 wins in 1998. But with Quinton Jackson having dethroned Chuck Liddell to claim the Light Heavyweight Championship, Dana White signed Hendo to meet Rampage at UFC 75 last month in a fight to unify the Pride and UFC Titles. However, it was not quite as simple as that. With Pride on pause, Henderson's belt would not be on the line; instead, if Henderson won he would add Jackson's belt to his collection, but if it was Jackson's night he would keep his belt. Whoever won would still be proclaimed the Unified Champion, whatever that means.
Henderson could have been forgiven for feeling distracted in the run-up to the battle, as his wife gave birth to their third child just days before he had to fly to London. Again, Dan was fighting outside his natural 185-pound weight class but, going into the match, he had the comfort of knowing that he'd beaten Wanderlei, who in turn had beaten Jackson not once, but twice. What unfolded on fight night may not have been the spectacular fireworks that White was hoping for, but it was a technical chess match that was mainly fought in the clinches and on the floor.
Hendo started strong, scoring the early takedowns and controlling the floor. The middle rounds were so close that they could have gone either way, but Jackson finished the fight strong with a knockdown in the fourth and ending the fifth with an impressive flurry. In the end Jackson took the unanimous decision in a contest likely to excite hardcore fans that can appreciate the intricacies of the rich grappling, but it was hardly a decisive win. Jackson kept his belt and will find no shortage of challengers with Wanderlei and Mauricio Shogun Rua joining the Zuffa ranks, but what lies in store for Henderson?
He could stay at 205 pounds, but the most exciting possibility available would be for him to move back down to 185 and challenge Anderson Silva for the Middleweight Championship. Silva has been a holy terror since arriving in the UFC from Pride, knocking out Chris Leben, smashing Rich Franklin to take the title and then elbowing Travis Lutter into submission. In his last fight he demolished former King Of Pancrase Nate Marquardt, and Anderson is set to fight Franklin for the second time at the end of the month at UFC 77.
While Franklin will need a minor miracle to beat Silva at his own game, by contrast Dan Henderson's style actually matches up well with The Spider. His Greco-Roman background makes him one of the few fighters in the world who can match Silva in the clinch (where the Brazilian has despatched many victims with brutal knee). Hendo's wrestling might allow him to take Silva down and, while Anderson's Ju-Jitsu has shown considerable improvement since he started training with the Nogueiras, he won't have the size advantage that the brothers held over Henderson when they beat him in Japan
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 20 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
Ever since the Fertitta brothers purchased Pride Fighting Championships in May, casting the organisation into limbo, the UFC has been slowly but inexorably bringing all of the Japanese promotion's top fighters into its ranks, picking the bones of Pride clean in the process. But while Zuffa has just signed Wanderlei Silva, and two former Pride competitors are now UFC Champions (Anderson Silva and Quinton Rampage Jackson), in September the UFC fans got their first look at the only man in MMA history to simultaneously hold titles in two different weight divisions - Dan Henderson.
His fight with Quinton Jackson at UFC 75 was billed as a unification bout but, with Pride on hiatus, they were really fighting for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title and 205-pound bragging rights. On fight night, Hendo and Jackson were so closely matched it was like they were twins, the result being a lot of time spent tussling in the clinch and wrestling on the floor. After the final bell, Rampage took the unanimous decision, but there was scarcely a hair's breadth to separate the warriors. Jackson kept his belt but, when it comes to Henderson making his presence felt in the UFC, he's only just begun.
STRAIGHT OUT OF DIAPERS
Dan Henderson has been wrestling almost since he could walk, starting at just five years old. He grew up in Apple Valley, California and, while he tried his hand at baseball and American football in high school, his first love was always wrestling. It can't have hurt that his dad, Bill, is a wrestling coach (who would later train fellow UFC fighter Joe Daddy Stevenson) and Dan won the high school nationals in his senior year.
He made the US Olympic team for Greco-Roman in 1992 and 1996, but never made it to the medal podium. And yet, despite representing his country at the highest level, there was no future for him in wrestling. Unfortunately, as the number one ranked wrestler, in the country I only made $650 per month, Henderson wrote on his MySpace page. He was planning on studying to become a chiropractor, but instead he got a phone call about an opportunity to rearrange people's bones in an entirely different manner.
Rico Chiapparelli was a former NCAA Champion and, after watching the early UFC shows, realised that this was a combat sport where wrestlers would excel. He decided to put together an MMA team and called Randy Couture, who knew Dan from the Olympic squad (on which The Natural was an alternate). Couture joined Chiapparelli's Real American Wrestling team, shortened to the catchy acronym RAW, and called up Henderson.
Shortly afterwards, Couture made his debut at UFC 13 while Hendo, with just two weeks of training in MMA, headed down to Brazil for the Brazil Open 97. At this time, his only experience of the stand-up game was punching the heavy bag and the focus mitts - he'd never done any boxing sparring at all. Fighting at 175 pounds, Dan beat his first opponent by TKO via ground and pound, then the second with a guillotine choke, earning $12,000 for the night's work. Chiropractor school be damned; he was going to fight for a living.
And that's just what he did. Back in the US he entered the middleweight tournament bracket at UFC 17, where he defeated BJJ black belt Allan Goes and then submission wizard Carlos Newton, both by decision. Two tournaments and two titles in a row marked Henderson as a fighter to watch but, unfortunately, the furore surrounding the UFC in the United States (memorably branded as human cockfighting by Senator and would-be president John McCain) cast the sport into temporary obscurity, unable to find pay-per-view carriers.
GO EAST, MY SON
This was before Zuffa bought the floundering promotion and set about re-branding the UFC, and times were incredibly dark in the Octagon. So Henderson packed up his gloves and headed to Japan for the now sadly defunct Rings promotion. After starting life as a U-style pro wrestling group, founded by the legendary Akira Maeda, Rings evolved into a legitimate mixed martial arts promotion and went on to stage its own tournament, King Of Kings, with the first round taking place in October 1999.
Numerous future stars started their careers fighting for Rings, including the current number one heavyweight in the world (and elusive Pride Champion), Fedor Emelianenko. The King Of Kings tourney was an openweight event, so Henderson frequently found himself facing opponents with sizeable weight advantages. But with his world-class wrestling skills and fighter's heart, he tore his way through the competition to conquer his block of the tournament. And returning in February 2000 for the finals, he beat some of the very best fighters that the sport has to offer.
He defeated the incredibly dangerous (and dirty) Dutch striker Gilbert Yvel by decision then, in the semi-finals, he faced none other than future Pride Heavyweight Champion and current UFC star, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Facing a legitimate heavyweight who was also a BJJ black belt and the star member of Brazilian Top Team, Dan proved his mettle and beat Nogueira by split decision, which put him in the finals against Renato Babalu Sobral. At this point, Babalu was on a nine-fight winning streak and was undefeated in professional competition, but Hendo outclassed him to take the majority decision and claim his third tournament title.
In the same year that Henderson was crowned the King Of Kings, Matt Lindland won the silver medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Like Couture and Henderson before him, he was faced with the quandary of translating his skills on the mat into a means of earning a living. Lindland bought a used car dealership in Gresham, Oregon and used the space at the back of the premises to put together a rather Spartan gym. He invited Couture and Henderson to join him and Team Quest was born.
With three Olympic-level wrestlers heading up the gym, no one should have been surprised that Team Quest quickly established itself as one of the top camps in the country - and it wasn't long before its members were grounding and pounding their way to World Titles. However, after his succession of tournament wins in the UFC, Rings and Brazil, Dan now faced a long, hard road to his next championship prize.
THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
In December of 2000, Henderson made his debut in Pride at Cold Fury. At the Saitama Super Arena, in front of over 28,000 fans, Henderson took on Brazil's Axe Murderer, Wanderlei Silva, carrying a considerable weight advantage. Hendo rocked Silva with punches but couldn't put him away, and in the end the Brazilian dominated the fight and took the decision victory, giving Dan his first loss in three years and ten fights. He later said that he was out of shape for the fight and, watching it now, it was his conditioning that let him down that night.
In his next three contests, Henderson took on fighters who were closer to his own weight and the results were impressive. He knocked out Renzo Gracie so fast that it required slow motion replays to make it clear how he'd done it; as Renzo shot in looking for a takedown, Dan caught him with a perfectly timed uppercut that dropped the Ju-Jitsu master cold (on first sight it looked as though Renzo went for the shot but then thought better of it and opted for a quick kip instead).
Next up, Hendo stopped the hugely durable Japanese journeyman Akira Shoji by TKO at Pride 14, and it's worth bearing in mind that Shoji went the distance with Mark Coleman (the hulking heavyweight who invented ground and pound) in Pride's First Grand Prix in 2000. This was followed up by a decision win over Chute Boxe's Murilo Ninja Rua before he suffered his second loss, by decision, against Ricardo Arona - another opponent who enjoyed a weight advantage over the American wrestler.
A rematch followed with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which ended in the third round when Minotauro caught Henderson in an armbar, forcing the tap. But it wasn't long before Dangerous Dan got back into his groove with knockouts of Shungo Oyama and Nogueira's BTT stablemate Murilo Bustamante - the UFC Middleweight Champion who forfeited his title to fight in Pride (oh, how times have changed!). Dan's winning rampage continued four fights and even claimed Pancrase Champion Yuki Kondo, before Antonio Rogerio Nogueira stopped him with an armbar, repeating his twin brother's success.
JEWELLERY COLLECTION
After that fight, Henderson moved to Pride's Bushido subsidiary, a stream of shows dedicated to showcasing the lighter weight classes. No longer taking on guys who regularly outweighed him by 20-40 pounds, he entered Pride's first welterweight tournament. It took him just 22 seconds to send Ryo Chonan to dreamland in the opening round, demolishing the warrior who had soundly beaten the deadly Anderson Silva.
Showman and Ally McBeal fan Akihiro Gono lasted a little longer, but succumbed to Henderson's furious punching and hit the canvas at 7:58 of the opening ten-minute round. In the final at Pride Shockwave 2005, Dan faced Murilo Bustamante in a rematch. This time they went to the final bell, with Hendo taking the split decision and becoming the promotion's first Welterweight Champion. It had taken him half a decade and 14 fights in Pride to claim a title in what was, at that time, the biggest MMA organisation on the planet. But he wanted more bling for his ever-growing MMA jewellery box
Ten months later he went up to 205 pounds and took a unanimous decision over Vitor Belfort at Pride 32, before squaring off against old nemesis Wanderlei Silva for the second time at Pride 33. The Brazilian was coming off a devastating KO loss to Mirko Cro Cop, but he had enjoyed an extraordinary run as Pride Middleweight Champion. Having held the title for five years, his only losses since beating Henderson back in 2000 were by decision, against Ricardo Arona and the massive heavyweight Mark Hunt, who outweighed him by over 80 pounds.
Since winning the title Silva had knocked out Quinton Jackson twice, beaten the living daylights out of Kazuyuki Fujita and flattened a legion of Japanese fighters, including Ikuhisa Minowa and Yuki Kondo. With a no-prisoners style based on his pitiless aggression and lethal Muay Thai, he was widely considered the top 205-pounder in the world - but Henderson was hungry for a second Pride belt. The fight went back and forth until Hendo staggered Silva with a spinning backfist in the third round, followed by an iron left hook that sent Silva to the canvas in a heap.
Henderson became the first man in Pride and MMA history to hold championships in two weight classes simultaneously. Then the Fertitta brothers bought Pride and everything was thrown into chaos.
BACK TO THE OCTAGON
Henderson's only appearance in the Octagon had been his UFC 17 wins in 1998. But with Quinton Jackson having dethroned Chuck Liddell to claim the Light Heavyweight Championship, Dana White signed Hendo to meet Rampage at UFC 75 last month in a fight to unify the Pride and UFC Titles. However, it was not quite as simple as that. With Pride on pause, Henderson's belt would not be on the line; instead, if Henderson won he would add Jackson's belt to his collection, but if it was Jackson's night he would keep his belt. Whoever won would still be proclaimed the Unified Champion, whatever that means.
Henderson could have been forgiven for feeling distracted in the run-up to the battle, as his wife gave birth to their third child just days before he had to fly to London. Again, Dan was fighting outside his natural 185-pound weight class but, going into the match, he had the comfort of knowing that he'd beaten Wanderlei, who in turn had beaten Jackson not once, but twice. What unfolded on fight night may not have been the spectacular fireworks that White was hoping for, but it was a technical chess match that was mainly fought in the clinches and on the floor.
Hendo started strong, scoring the early takedowns and controlling the floor. The middle rounds were so close that they could have gone either way, but Jackson finished the fight strong with a knockdown in the fourth and ending the fifth with an impressive flurry. In the end Jackson took the unanimous decision in a contest likely to excite hardcore fans that can appreciate the intricacies of the rich grappling, but it was hardly a decisive win. Jackson kept his belt and will find no shortage of challengers with Wanderlei and Mauricio Shogun Rua joining the Zuffa ranks, but what lies in store for Henderson?
He could stay at 205 pounds, but the most exciting possibility available would be for him to move back down to 185 and challenge Anderson Silva for the Middleweight Championship. Silva has been a holy terror since arriving in the UFC from Pride, knocking out Chris Leben, smashing Rich Franklin to take the title and then elbowing Travis Lutter into submission. In his last fight he demolished former King Of Pancrase Nate Marquardt, and Anderson is set to fight Franklin for the second time at the end of the month at UFC 77.
While Franklin will need a minor miracle to beat Silva at his own game, by contrast Dan Henderson's style actually matches up well with The Spider. His Greco-Roman background makes him one of the few fighters in the world who can match Silva in the clinch (where the Brazilian has despatched many victims with brutal knee). Hendo's wrestling might allow him to take Silva down and, while Anderson's Ju-Jitsu has shown considerable improvement since he started training with the Nogueiras, he won't have the size advantage that the brothers held over Henderson when they beat him in Japan
For the rest of this feature, check out issue 20 of FSM - available at WH Smith and all good retailers. (For US readers we are now carried at Borders, so check for local availability or click here to subscribe.)
From the Fighting Spirit Magazine archive. Byline: David West.