“Dirty” Dan Henderson adds to his KO collection with brutal win at UFC 100
Published by Zach Arnold on July 13th, 2009 in Current Events

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If there’s one thing that we learned about Dan Henderson coming out of UFC 100, it’s that there may be in fact two different sides to his personality. After Henderson brutally knocked out Michael Bisping with a right hand, he landed a second shot while Bisping was on the ground and the referee was hurriedly trying to stop the fight.

The babyface side of Dan Henderson said that he was just doing his job as a fighter and continuing to fight until the referee stopped him.

“Well, you know, basically I’m not the one reffing and I knew that I hurt him bad and wanted to make sure that he didn’t wake up before the ref stopped the fight,” Henderson told Mike Straka of Fox News. “So, I was in the process of just landing the next punch, the ref stopped it, and I stopped right away.”

And then there was the Dan Henderson showed up at the UFC 100 post-fight press conference.

“When you’re in the heat of the moment, the ref hadn’t stopped me yet. Who knows what’s going to happen, if he’s going to recover or if they’re going to stop the fight. You know, and I really only hit him twice, once on my feet and once on the ground, I didn’t keep going, I didn’t go after the ref trying to stop me, nothing like that, it was just the reaction of mine to keep going until I was stopped and you know it did feel good, though.”

Kenny Florian, who was live at UFC 100, was quick to defend Henderson in an interview with Fox News.

“Yeah, you know, you’re always concerned, any time someone gets knocked out and takes another big shot like that, that’s when some injuries can happen but the referees are right on top on it and no further blows were incurred. That’s his job, his job isn’t to stop the fight. The referee needs to stop that fight, so you know, his job is to keep fighting until he’s told otherwise.”

In listening to all of the interviews Henderson has done since the Bisping fight (and he’s done a lot of them), it’s crystal clear that Bisping emotionally charged him up. He can say that Bisping didn’t get to him, but the reality is he did. It’s one of the few times that we’ve really gotten to hear from the ‘real’ Dan Henderson in terms of what he is like when he hates someone, and it’s clear that he does hate Michael Bisping.

The one impression you get right away when listening to Henderson talk about Bisping is that every time Henderson tries to act like a professional and put over his opponent, you can just sense that he isn’t buying into what is he saying and then out of nowhere he’ll say something heelish that makes you go, “Huh?” It’s a combination of Henderson’s good and bad side showing up all at once.

Going into the fight, Henderson all but promised that it would be a stand-up war which is why so many MMA bettors were suffering from heartburn at the idea of betting on his fight. If Henderson wants to wrestle, he can win any fight. It’s like what Jordan Breen of Sherdog.com says — the ball is always in Dan’s court, but you just never know what he’s going to do with it and if he’s going to give it away like he occasionally has in fights. With that said, you have to give Henderson credit for saying that he would knock out Bisping and in the end, he delivered one of the most brutal knockout punches in the history of MMA. What could you compare it to? How about his knockout of Wanderlei Silva in February of 2007 in Las Vegas? Pretty good highlight reel there.

“It’s awesome, you know I’m sure that’s going to be one of my favorite fights that I’ve ever fought, so it’ll it means a lot to me to be able to do that here at UFC 100,” said Henderson in a UFC official post-fight media interview. “The plan was just to win every round and beat him up doing it, beat him up standing up. He moves well but he wasn’t landing hardly anything and the ones that he did land didn’t hurt so I felt that I was hurting him a lot more on my feet and I had a better chance of finishing the fight if we’re on our feet. I took him down, you know, he could probably hold on and lose a decision, you know, I wanted to knock him out. It landed flush. It’s my punch that I’m known for and it landed square so, if I land it you know it’s a hard punch.”

One minute, Henderson would talk about how great he felt and how he was happy and then the next time he’d bring up a comment about Bisping that clearly indicated that the British star annoyed the hell out of him and still annoys the hell out of him. Henderson made no bones about it in an interview with Sherdog after the fight.

“Against Mr. Bisping, who said in the press conference that I’ve never knocked anybody out in 5 years so why the hell would he be worried about that? Well, in the press conference, he said well I haven’t knocked anyone out since Mirko Cro Cop. So he’s retarded.”

You could tell that this got under his skin because Henderson talked about it in multiple media interviews, including one with a UFC interviewer.

“Where does that put him now? If I can’t knock anybody out but him? It puts him way down the list.”

Henderson was asked at the post-fight press conference how he was able to knock out Bisping and time his shot so perfectly. The veteran said that Bisping’s fight style made the game plan easy for him to implement.

“It was apparent he always liked to circle off to his left, which was towards my right hand, but I was supposed to be setting it up a little better with my jab and my left hook with my front hand and I’m not sure exactly what I did right before I landed that right but you know I knew that he likes to circle off after an attack trying to get away towards my power hand and it’s just not a smart thing to do against me because I was looking for that pretty much from the get go, a little too much the first round, I got my jab and hook going in the second round a little better.”

Henderson told Loretta Hunt of Sherdog that after the first round, he got a sense very quickly that Bisping wasn’t going to put up much of a fight.

“Just he didn’t hit very hard, you know, he hit me with a couple of jabs, two or three jabs and one or two right hands that just felt like nothing. I expected him to do that, I expect him to run, I expect him to act like he did against Leben but I wasn’t going to follow him, I was going to cut him off and make him have his back to the cage, you know I mean he has good footwork, he moves well, he moved off a few times and it was just a matter of time kind of getting him tied up in the cage, got in the clinch once, I kneed him a few times, wasn’t didn’t feel like I even needed to take him down, I felt like I was beating him up on his feet so why change that?”

All Bisping was left with was the option of trying to take down Henderson, to which the American laughed heartily on camera about.

“Nah, it was I kind of half-way expected him to try that once he ran into a few hard punches, he’s the type of guy that doesn’t like to get hit and he really had no choice but to stand up with me and you know he made his statement that he was going to outwrestle me and his striking is much better than mine and you know he’s the one who can’t remember what happened last week right now.”

Successful fighters normally go into bouts very confident in their abilities to win. However, Henderson admitted that he was not only confident but he didn’t see any way he could have possibly lost to Bisping even on his worst day.

“It was more the fact that I trained hard and worked on my cardio because that was his only way of winning is to run around, trying to outpoint me and wait until I get tired and maybe win the last round and a half and squeak out a victory. With his gift decisions that he’s had I didn’t want to leave it to that and I made sure if I didn’t learn you know if I forgot half of what I know and just work on my cardio, I’d still beat his ass you know skill-wise, so cardio was the only thing that I would work on and I made sure that I focused on that and got in great shape and that’s the way it went. The mentality was there’s no way I can lose to this guy and there’s no way I’m going to let it happen you know as long as I was in shape, there’s no way I can lose to this guy. He doesn’t hit hard, he doesn’t knock anybody out, he just kind of adds up his punches and you know but he hasn’t fought anybody like me and you know the toughest guy he’s fought was Rashad and you know I felt like Rashad didn’t fight like he should have or could have and even in my worst fight that I could imagine I still should beat him so at the point of how I am right now in my career and skill-wise you know I still should beat him if I’m in shape. If I had the worst fight in my life and I was in shape I’d still beat him. But I was in shape and I had a great fight, I didn’t have the worst fight.”

Dan made it very clear that his motive going into the fight was to end up with a re-match against Anderson Silva for the 185-pound title.

“You know, [the win] should put me right back up in there,” Henderson told a UFC interviewer. “I mean I didn’t think I was down from the top, I just felt like I had a bad fight against Anderson Silva and I’ve been wanting to do that again and you know after beating Rich Franklin you know and Michael Bisping back-to-back you know I think I would deserve that shot.”

Henderson stepped up his campaign at the post-fight press conference.

“You know ultimately it’s up to [Dana], but I feel in my mind that I’ve came back and fought some fights and deserve that, you know it’s up to him to make that decision, it’s up to me to beat his ass if he doesn’t make the right decision.”

To which White responded, “See, he is a violent, dirty guy.”

“It’s a fight that I want and I feel like I haven’t asked yet for it, you know, I let it known that I would like that re-match but I have never asked Dana or anybody to give me that, it’s just a matter of time I knew that I had to win some fights and beat some good guys first and I felt like I’ve done that now and if it doesn’t happen you know I kind of like fighing at 205 too so there’s lot of match-ups for me.”

Henderson said to Loretta Hunt that White didn’t approach him after the fight about fighting Anderson Silva and that he has ready to move up back to 205 pounds if he has to.

“No, I mean [Dana] was vague on the idea. Anderson’s got a fight coming up and it could be the winner of Maia and Marquardt. Who knows what’s going to happen? I think they’re kind of stuck and if I don’t get that title fight right away I’m going to ask the top guys at 205. One of the top contenders. I don’t expect to get a title shot but I’d like to get one of the top guys up there. Somebody that will help me get a better step up that ladder. I like fighting at both [weight classes]. I like the fact that there’s more opportunity for better match-ups at whatever, I’m not locked down in any one weight to limit the match-ups and I feel like I’ve done enough to deserve a title shot at 185 and if Dana feels that I haven’t then I’ll fight at 205.”

Henderson believes that the second fight will look a lot different than the first one, which featured a pretty poor showing against one of the best fighters on the planet.

“It wasn’t anything to do with my game plan or necessarily what happened early in the second round but my body just felt flat, mentally or physically I wasn’t there that night. The game plan was great but I didn’t follow through with it. Obviously it wasn’t to go right into his biggest strength which was his stand-up and I wanted to get him on the ground and beat him up ther, get him in the clinch and take him down from there and just didn’t follow through. I would have kicked his ass if it was a one round fight. *laugh*”

Henderson said that if he can’t get a fight against Anderson Silva that he would consider a fight against Light Heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida.

“I think Machida has progressed into a more well-rounded fighter and exchanges more, he’s not as boring as he used to be and he’s actually starting to get exciting to watch and he’s shown with being able to finish some guys and you know I’d love the opportunity to fight him as well. I love a challenge and he would be a good challenge.”

As for Michael Bisping, Henderson was asked by Sherdog to give some words of advice to Bisping and how he could improve his game. Note the irony in what he said and how he said it.

“(I’d tell him to) Shut his mouth. I’d tell him to just focus on training, learning, and being more humble. Maybe he won’t get booed as much. He’s already have proven he can win a lot of fights, but it’s not about that. If he’s going to step up to the top in the game he’s still got a ways to go and he can get there and I’m sure he will you know sooner or later he’s obviously shown that he’s improved a lot in the last two years but he hasn’t improved enough to where his head should be as straight as it is.”

He added upon his comments during his UFC media interview.

“There wasn’t, you know, it’s just the fact that he likes to open his mouth and I don’t agree with that. I think he could a lot more respectful to the fans and the sport and everything I hear is just negative about his mouth and his attitude so you know hopefully he changes his ways because he is a good fighter, he’s tough, and he’s up-and-coming and he could have a good future in the end if he knows what he needs to do with his training.”

For as much trash-talking as Bisping did leading into the fight, Henderson matched up verbally in that category before the fight and has continued to lay it on thick after the fight. Time to accept the image character of “Dirty” Dan Henderson, anyone?