Dan Henderson is one of the 8 or so guys in my top 5, lol.
But if forced to really rank them, I can’t see Hendo outside of the top 5.
IMO he had 3 big opportunities to be a serious GOAT contender.
He blew one of them.
One was close enough to deserve an extra round.
And one was a fucking egregious robbery.
Fuck.
I’m not sure. Anderson’s footwork was really hard to deal with and his plumb clinch knees were devastating which is unfortunate for a Greco guy looking for upper body locks.
I think if they fought 100 times Henderson wins some of them but Anderson was too slick to just rush him with a crow hop piss missle.
Hendo is on my list because he didn’t give a good god damn who was offered to him regardless of weight. His resume is crazy and spans multiple MMA eras. I was a fan of all the RAW and later Team Quest guys. Watching Henderson in the early UFCs you could tell that dude was a fighter who wrestled and not the other way around.
Good points.
But if you watch the first round and think about the first Chael fight…
Anderson was beatable.
IMO Hendo needed to have a control based gameplan and not force the fight ending punch.
Had he done that the opportunity might have come to him, but if it didn’t he would control to victory.
I don’t see Hendo getting subbed like Chael did without being rocked.
Chael shot actual takedowns which Henderson did early in his career but stopped for whatever reason. Assuming Dan’s double leg was still there, he could throw the 1-2 buckle my shoe double leg but I just don’t think Henderson’s brain is wired to win a sporting competition. He wants to put you on a t-shirt.
1000% agree.
I remember when Wandy was asked who his toughest opponent was.
His answer was something like “Dan Henderson. When you fight him you’d better bring your lunch.”
That was before the rematch, so Wandy was saying that about an opponent he had a win over.
Their fights were amazing and deserved a third imo. I’d watch those two fight right now and pay whatever they were asking to see it
He fell in love with his hands.
That’s usually a harbinger of a decline.
In Hendo’s case it got him some very big wins.
Unfortunately, it was also to his detriment in a few fights – Anderson being one of them.
Yeah…
The thing we like about him was both a strength and a weakness.
A rematch in the UFC would have been awesome.
I think Wandy was more on the downslope than Hendo by then though.
Pride era Wandy was an absolute monster.
Hendo was just game as fuck for almost 2 decades.
He beat Bisping twice IMO.
Hendo vs Liddell would have been fun.
And Wandy/Liddell was as good an argument for an extra round as I think I’ve seen!
Yeah which is why those types don’t really go far anymore. I’d watch a league of Mike Perry’s tomorrow. UFC needs more cavemen
Your wrestling idols may eat a knee to the dome before they ever get on top to headbutt. Derp.
The gay UFC/Unified Rules protect them like endangered species.
100%
It’s stupid how everyone assumes wrestlers would be the ones with the advantage.
Upkicks from a downed opponent and knees on a failed shot would make wrestlers think twice about shooting
I don’t accept that certain guys are better simply because they came later, but if you only want to compare newer wrestling based fighters, what about Amir Aliakbari? He was a much more accomplished and larger wrestler who looked unbeatable until an over the hill Crocop beat him. I think you’re just underestimating how good an uninjured prime Crocop is.
We aren’t talking about wrestling accolades. We are talking about MMA. CroCop was a killer in Japan without testing, came to the UFC “hurt” and was mediocre then goes back overseas and starts right back where he left off in his 40s.
Body lock, snap down, front headlock, knees to the head. Wrestlers win again.
Everyone was roiding in the UFC.
I guess you forgot about USADA and how people fell off. When the TRT exemption (free roid pass) ended, it got ugly.
And all of that was AFTER the merger…
Oh, so Cro Cop lost to this guy on a level playing field?
There is a world of difference between being able to cycle around testing and not being tested at all but I’m sure you knew that.
He got severely injured during the Gonzaga fight and didn’t take a rest until after Roy Nelson. His next fight he finally semi-healed after taking his first rest of more than a year since his injury. Add to that the rules for UFC are horrible for an aggression based striker. The giant octogon/fence is the most horseshit design imaginable for any elite aggressive striker. It’s part of the reason Pride was so much more exciting that the UFC.
None of this matters to the topic however. His poor UFC performance was not because of poor takedown defense. He had shit mobility and was getting KOed.
Mark Hunt, Anderson Silva, Adensanya, and Pereira are all elite strikers who have done well in the UFC. If you want to watch kickboxing without grappling, go do it. The ropes and corners of a ring have their own issues as well.
The pride ring was about 23 ft
The UFC octagon is about 30 ft.
Strikers have more room to move in the UFC . If you’re getting caught with your back against the cage, that’s on you.
I’m not saying a striker cannot do well in the cage (especially an out-fighter), but any type of aggressive-based striker is at a disadvantage. I’m not sure if you’ve ever boxed, but a LOT of time is spent training how to get someone in and yourself out of corners. You can’t cut off the ring if there are no corners. Even the size sucks. I don’t pay as much attention to the UFC as I used to, but remember when they used 2 different sized cages? The smaller ones always had more exciting fights.