The End Nears for Dan Henderson

In fighting, the end, and knowing when it’s arrived, is the hardest part.

Dan Henderson is four months away from his 46th birthday. He’s lost three of his past four fights and dropped six of his last eight. Only one fight remains on his UFC contract. As such, Henderson’s upcoming match against Lyoto Machida on Saturday has a tone of finality to it. Perhaps it won’t be the end of a career – a certain promotion specializing in tent-pole events will likely have interest – but Saturday will mark the end of something.

Like many of his contemporaries, Henderson began fighting nearly 19 years ago to fund his wrestling career. Before he shifted gears and made MMA his sole focus, he’d already defeated Allan Goes, Carlos Newton, Gilbert Yvel, Renato Sobral, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. And that was just two nights of fighting. He quickly established himself as one of the top middleweights (under 199 lbs.) in the world. His victories weren’t always decisive, but even close victories, particularly those against much larger foes, revealed his talents.

Henderson settled in as a mainstay of Pride’s middleweight (205 lbs.) division. He was better suited for a weight class down, as he didn’t even meet Pride’s middleweight limit, but Pride didn’t have a formal 185-pound (or 183-pound) weight class. The promotion focused on heavyweights and middleweights – that’s where the money fights were, so that’s where Henderson, however undersized in an era when most top fighters were cutting weight, plied his trade. He would lose to larger fighters. Wanderlei Silva, Ricardo Arona, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and his brother Rogerio all defeated Henderson. Many others were in Henderson’s boat – too small for middleweight – and he would defeat those fighters, including Murilo Bustamante.

In 2005, Pride at last formally created a 183-pound division. Henderson tore through Ryo Chonan and Akihiro Gono to reach the finals, where he narrowly edged out Bustamante in a rematch to take the Pride welterweight crown. Henderson had won three tournaments previously, but this marked his first championship. Before he had a chance to defend it, Kazuo Misaki knocked him off in the first round of the following year’s tournament. However, through all his losses, Henderson always bounced back stronger. He defeated Vitor Belfort later that year and then, in early 2007, shook the divisional landscape by knocking out longtime champion Wanderlei Silva to capture the middleweight title.

Henderson, two belts in tow, returned to the UFC following Pride’s demise for a pair of unification bouts. First came a five-round war with Quinton Jackson, a loss. Then he clashed with a prime Anderson Silva, a second loss. Once again, he returned strong. Middleweight prospect and tearer of legs (or “terror of legs,” either one works) Rousimar Palhares was no match. Henderson then beat ex-middleweight champion Rich Franklin narrowly in a controversial fight. To cap it off, at UFC 100, Henderson scored one of the most famous knockouts in MMA history over Michael Bisping.

Riding high, Henderson changed his setting. The coveted title shot against Anderson Silva he’d appeared to earn at UFC 100 was being shopped elsewhere, and Strikeforce, shortly into its national expansion, made a major offer. Henderson debuted fighting for the promotion’s middleweight title against Jake Shields on CBS. In the first round, Henderson batted Shields around the cage like a ping-pong ball, but Shields recovered and Henderson faded. Shields won a wide decision, but Henderson would rebound just fine.

After beating Renato Sobral again, Henderson was given a light heavyweight title fight with Rafael Cavalcante. Surviving an early knockdown, Henderson bounced back to punch out “Feijao” in the third round. Next, Henderson toppled the great Fedor Emelianenko in the first round. He then rode back into the UFC on his high horse, into a main event match with Shogun Rua that many would call the greatest of all-time. It was not Henderson’s last great moment – but it was the end of a stretch where Dan Henderson still competed like Dan Henderson.

Following an injury, Henderson returned to fight Lyoto Machida in early 2013. It was a dull affair that resulted in a split decision win for Machida. The same sentence could be written, replacing the name Lyoto Machida with Rashad Evans, for Henderson’s fight in June of that year. Henderson was now 43; the two losses weren’t those of a finished fighter, but they also weren’t those of a prime Dan Henderson. In a spot where he’d usually rebound, Henderson met a Mack Truck – a revitalized Vitor Belfort, who did not hesitate to hand the iron-jawed Henderson the first knockout loss of his career.

A rematch with Rua followed. Henderson won, but it was hardly a rebound performance. Rua dominated the opening rounds and Henderson looked like a long gone fighter, until his great equalizing right hand cracked Rua on the nose to end the fight. The win earned him a quick turnaround two months later against Daniel Cormier, a younger, faster, better wrestler than Henderson who threw the former double champion around before choking him out. The painful streak continued with a quick stoppage loss to Gegard Mousasi. A quick, vintage win over Tim Boetsch earned Henderson some breathing room, but that was snatched away by a Vitor Belfort head kick months later.

Henderson heads into Saturday’s bout with Lyoto Machida needing one more rebound performance to keep a spot as an upper-echelon fighter in an elite promotion – a spot he’s held for nearly two decades. The odds are not in his favor. Lyoto Machida, even in the latter stage of his career, remains an elusive target, and he knows which weapon he needs to avoid. It probably won’t be the end of Dan Henderson the fighter, but it may be the end of Henderson’s career of battling elite opponents.

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.