Henderson vs. Belfort: The Unneeded Trilogy

A trilogy in mixed martial arts is supposed to be special. Two fighters meeting thrice in a career – whether due to an intense desire to be number one, a heated rivalry, or their styles mesh and create great fights – is inherently rare. Trilogies have created some of MMA’s most memorable and important moments, from Wanderlei Silva and Quinton Jackson exchanging knockout blows to Chuck Liddell vs. Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock launching the UFC to unprecedented heights.

Rarely, there are trilogies that have no real significance and leave little lasting impression. They usually take place in smaller organizations where being a dependable hand – agreeing to a fight and showing up to fight – means you may run into the same opponent a couple of times. At the top level of the sport, trilogies seldom occur without solid reasoning, and trilogies involving top names are a lock to go down in history.

Saturday night will be an exception.

Dan Henderson and Vitor Belfort are two of the best and most enduring athletes in mixed martial arts history. Tied at one win apiece, they will meet for the third time on November 7, and you will be hard-pressed to find an example of more notable fighters completing a less significant trilogy.

Henderson and Belfort first met in 2006. Prior to that point, they had a habit of just missing each other. Henderson was one-and-done with the UFC in 1998, leaving a title shot on the table after a struggling UFC docked his pay. (His teammate, then-UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture, departed at the same time.) Belfort packed his bags for Japan’s Pride organization not long after. Henderson joined him there in 2000 after a failed bid at making his third Olympic wrestling team, but Belfort was back in the UFC by mid-2001, lured its new ownership group, Zuffa. In 2005, Belfort, on a three-fight losing streak, was the UFC’s representative in Pride’s 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix. He lost to Alistair Overeem in the tournament’s opening round, while Henderson, also competing in the tournament, was sent home by Rogerio Nogueira the same night.

The next year, Belfort was a free agent when Pride scooped him up. Heading into his October 2006 meeting with Henderson, he was the face of unfulfilled potential. At 29, 10 years after he entered the sport as the next big thing, he was 14-7, losing most of his major matches (although all of his losses were to top quality fighters). Henderson was Pride’s welterweight (183-pounds) champion, but had just lost to Kazuo Misaki in the first round of that year’s welterweight grand prix. The light heavyweight match-up was a perfectly acceptable addition to Pride’s U.S. debut, with Henderson waiting for the welterweight tournament to wrap up and Belfort looking to prove the “Old Vitor” was still there.

The fight was fine, but hardly spectacular or legendary. After a fairly close first round, Belfort tired and Henderson took over. Henderson won on the judges’ cards, including an absurd 30-24 score. The most notable thing about the fight happened later on when Belfort failed his drug test for an anabolic steroid.

Belfort’s 2006 drug test failure for 4-Hydroxytestosterone became the central issue about his later use of testosterone replacement therapy. After beginning the therapy, Belfort initially only fought outside of Nevada – whether a calculated decision or not – where it was believed the commission would deny him a therapeutic use exemption for the testosterone.

Belfort’s TRT use was made public in 2013, although it began in 2011. In the first half of 2013, he solidified himself as middleweight’s top contender, with sensational knockout victories over Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold. He would have challenged the winner of July 2013’s Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman middleweight title fight, but when Weidman pulled off the upset, UFC opted for an immediate rematch that December. Now an awkward third wheel in the title picture, Belfort moved up to light heavyweight for a match with Henderson.

Dan Henderson’s 2013 was far from his best year. He kicked it off with a close split decision loss to Lyoto Machida, which he followed with a close split decision loss to Rashad Evans. Both fights were dull, and Henderson, a certified legend at age 43, was left without a clear direction. A rematch with Belfort made little sense, but with Belfort turning down a match with Tim Kennedy and UFC needing a main event, the promotion turned a rematch fans were hardly clamoring for.

Belfort, at 36 and looking better than ever, became the first to stop the iron-chinned Henderson with strikes. It took him only 77 seconds. The quick blitz seemed to end the Henderson-Belfort series. Henderson looked his age for the first time in his career, while Belfort performed with the mind of a seasoned veteran and the athleticism of a man ten years his junior.

Two years later, the fight is happening again, seemingly for no other reason than a do-over for the post-TRT era. The Nevada Athletic Commission banned the treatment after Belfort failed a drug test in early 2014. That meant that Henderson, who had been receiving TRT since 2007 without controversy, had to cease the treatment as well.

Since that point, Henderson is 1-2, losing fights to Daniel Cormier and Gegard Mousasi by wide margins before buying his career some more time with a 28-second knockout of Tim Boetsch. Belfort has only fought once since last beating Henderson, losing his title shot to Weidman via first round stoppage. An early Belfort flurry appeared to trouble the champion, but Belfort had little to offer after that.

It’s a rubber match doesn’t mean much. Henderson’s legacy is set in stone, and a win for Belfort isn’t going to advance him much closer to a title shot. There is no great legacy of the first two matches to live up to in the third. It may reach one million viewers on television, but that’s not a big hit. The appeal of the rubber match, if you consider it appealing, seems to be as a test of Vitor Belfort’s decline since 2013. For a third meeting of two all-time greats, that doesn’t quite cut it.

Dan Plunkett has covered MMA for 411Mania since 2008. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @Dan_Plunkett.