Dan Henderson makes his case on why he will win at UFC 100
Published by Zach Arnold on July 6th, 2009 in Current Events

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Dan Henderson easily gets lost in the PR shuffle. Despite a push as one of the two coaches on season nine of The Ultimate Fighter, Henderson really didn’t create many waves as far as building a feud against rival coach Michael Bisping. However, Henderson as he naturally does, wins over everyone who goes near him and manages to attain even more respect.

Which is why when Dan Henderson says something negative about you, you might want to look at yourself in the mirror.

“Other than the fact that he’s a douchebag like everybody says, I don’t dislike him, I think he’s an OK guy, you know he’s just not somebody I’d choose to hang out with,” Henderson said in an interview with Sherdog.com. “He opens his mouth a little too much and thinks a little too highly of himself. He’s well-rounded, he’s not great at any one thing, you know, his stand-up’s probably his better attribute but he’s still not great at it, he’s not real dangerous on his feet.”

Even when he’s insulting someone, Dan finds the nicest and tamest way possible of doing it. Despite legitimate heat between the two men, it is clear that there Bisping knows what he is facing and respects his opponent.

“Dan Henderson, people say he’s a legend in the sport and I suppose that’s a fair description,” Bisping exclaimed during an official UFC media interview to hype up his fight at UFC 100. “You don’t have to look at his record, and he’s fought a who’s who of Mixed Martial Artists, you know, really has all the big names he’s fought them and beat a lot of them as well. His last fight he beat Rich Franklin, there’s only two other people in the world who have ever done that and Rich Franklin is one of the best out of there. The guy’s no joke, I could be underestimating massively but when I watch him, I don’t see a problem for me to be honest. If I go out there and fight the way I know I can fight, then I know I can beat him.”

Bisping says that if he fights his game plan, he can beat Henderson. Truth be told, this fight is all about Dan Henderson and not about Michael Bisping. Dan Henderson is a known quantity. We know what he brings to the table – skill, experience, but he also is Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. You’re never fully sure which Dan Henderson will show up — are you getting Decision Dan? Are you getting Frustrating Dan? Are you getting Dangerous Dan? Just when you expect him to destroy someone, he doesn’t. When you lower your expectations, he catches you off guard and dominates an opponent like he did in February 2007 against Wanderlei Silva. And then when he faces an opponent he should beat outright without controversy, like a Kazuo Misaki or Rich Franklin, you end up with Decision Dan.

It’s completely fair and accurate to say that Henderson is one of the quirkiest, yet most talented fighters we’ve seen in Mixed Martial Arts. As Jordan Breen of Sherdog says, the ball is always in Henderson’s court — you just never know what he’s going to do with it. At times, Henderson imposes his will on his opponents and wrestles his game — and then there are other times where plays right into the trap of his opponent and doesn’t really care all that much.

“For a while, I tried to knock out guys a little too much and got taken down and held down a little too much and I’ve always been a fairly hard hitter and that’s my best way to finish a fight, so sometimes I do try a little hard to knock a guy out but for the most part, I’ve always known that I’m a wrestler.”

“It’s good to keep him guessing. I think I’ve been mixing it up pretty well and a lot of that depends on my opponent. Rich Franklin, I wanted to mix it up and I’m not afraid to stand with anybody. Somebody like him I’d like to take down just as much as I’d like to stand up with him. Bisping’s about the same as Rich Franklin as far as I’m concerned in that manner.”

However, given Henderson’s most recent performances including the vicious knockout of Wanderlei Silva, Bisping and others see Henderson as focusing on striking first. The Brit is prepared to handle it.

“He has this big right hand. I very rarely get hit, you know, and people have said that I’m a pain in the ass to hit and a pain in the ass to spar with. I think I’m going to be too quick for him, I don’t think he’s going to land that big shot, you know. No one’s landed that big shot on me yet, you know. I’m not saying I haven’t been hit but I haven’t been put on my ass yet. I haven’t been knocked out and I don’t see Dan Henderson, no disrespect to 38 years of age, he’s got to be slowing down. He’s got to be, no two ways about it. He’s got to be be slowing down, I don’t think he’s going to catch me with it. And if he does, this hand will be right there to block it and this hand will be right there to counter.”

We know what both men want to do in this fight. Bisping wants to keep it standing as much as possible and get into scramble mode. Henderson, if he’s smart, will take Bisping down over and over and punish him.

The question for Michael Bisping is how much his wrestling skills have improved, given what we’ve seen in the past from him against the likes of a Matt Hamill. Hamill gave him problems and Bisping ended up winning a controversial hometown judges’ decision when the fight was over. It’s a decision that Henderson has in the back of his head.

“Yeah, I mean, especially the gifts that Michael Bisping’s gotten in the past. I think, I definitely don’t want to leave it up to the judges, I’m just going to beat the [expletive] out of him. I just want to beat him. I’m going to make him fight me, that’s the game plan, not run and pick me apart, just want to make him fight me.”

“I’m going to put him on his back anyway, that’s not a question. He’s going to be on his back for sure and I’m sure he knows that. It’s a matter of how well he can get back up and how well he can, you know, not get beat up while he’s on his back. It doesn’t matter if he’s on his back or on his feet, I’m still going to be trying to knock a hole in his face. I think if he’s going to stand there and trade with me, he’s probably going to get hit and not like it.”

The big question mark on Bisping’s wrestling ability is how much coach Zach Light has taught him in terms of takedown defense and takedowns in general. Light was supposed to help out with Cheick Kongo’s ground game in preparation for the Cain Velasquez fight… and that did not turn out so well.

That hasn’t stopped Bisping’s confidence going into the fight, however.

“Dan Henderson may be one of the best wrestlers out there but I ‘ve learnt how to deal with those guys and I’m wrestling all the time, I’m a much better wrestler now than what I was when I fought those guys. I wrestle every day, day in and day out and my takedowns are good now, my takedown defense is good. If people take me down and I think I’ve showed this when I fought those wrestlers, if you take me down I just get straight back up you know every single time. I’ve got my technique down and I know how to get up every time, I know twenty different ways to get back to my feet. You know, I could just scramble up or I could do set routines. I realize a long time ago obviously coming from England we don’t have the High School wrestling or College wrestling that you know I might get out-wrestled a lot, so I started on my back every time I sparred or did jiu-jitsu, I started on my back to try to anticipate being in that position and to escape that position and now I’m happy with it, it’s paid off and now I’m virtually impossible to hold down.”

While hardcore fans and bettors are paying close attention to Henderson vs. Bisping, unfortunately the fight is getting lost in the PR shuffle on the UFC 100 card. After all, the top two matches on the show are Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir and Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves. However, Henderson vs. Bisping is a very important fight for all parties involved. UFC invested television time in trying to pair these two men as coaches on their reality show in order to try to generate some heat for their upcoming fight. It didn’t really pan out that way. For Henderson, being on the reality show was a positive experience.

“The experience was good. I don’t get bothered by seeing my opponent ahead of time or before the fight, you know, it’s no big deal to me, it doesn’t happen until we get into that cage so for me it was a good experience and I had a good time coaching the guys and I probably learned a little bit, got a little bit better as a coach. It was a challenge but it was fun.”

The hope was that the two men would want to tear each other’s throats out. However, anyone with a few brain cells knew automatically that Henderson was one of the worst choices in terms of finding someone controversial or someone who will emotionally blow up on the TV screen.

“I’m out there to fight my fight, not his fight. No matter who I’m fighting, I don’t care, I don’t even know what he’s been saying, I’m hardly ever on the Internet and you know every once in a while my guys will come in and say ‘he said this and that’ and I don’t really give a shit. What matters is how I fight that night. I’m not worried about what he’s going to do, I’m more worried about what I’m going to do to him.”

While Bisping is confident in his skills and his ability, it does come across a little bit in media interviews as if he’s talking down Henderson’s ability a little bit — either because he believes what he is saying or he’s trying to hype himself up psychologically.

“I feel I’m getting better and better all the time. I’m now at a point where I’m very happy with my wrestling, my jiu-jitsu, my striking, everything. Not just that, but I’m starting to feel more at home in the Octagon and when I fight in there, I’m kind of used to it a little bit more now. I’m not going in there as the new guy anymore, you know, you could say I’m a veteran of this sport now. Every time I fight I feel a little bit more of myself and more able to pull off the type of stuff I know I can pull off. There is no reason I shouldn’t win the fight. Dan Henderson’s tough and I expect him to come out of the fight definitely with a solid jaw and to be tested and put into positions I’ve never been in but I think if I fight to my full potential then it’s certainly a fight that I can win.”

Henderson uses fewer words to make his point as to how he envisions the fight going down at UFC 100.

“I’m going to choke him, kimura him, or knee him in the face. One way or another, he’s going to get stopped.”