We all get old. It’s OK. It’s part of life.
That’s pretty much all life is: A march from youth to old age, and a bunch of stuff happens in the interim.
For a select collection of athletes, a portion of that stuff involves prizefighting in a cage for the joy of fans and the profit of promoters. Dan Henderson is one of those athletes.
He’s also old.
Saturday night at UFC on FOX 14, Henderson was stopped early in the first round by Gegard Mousasi. The fans didn’t like it, booing raucously. Joe Rogan was quick to question the stoppage on the broadcast. Henderson himself already had his mind made up that this wouldn’t be his last fight, regardless of the outcome.
But the proof was in the pudding: Henderson is not what he once was. He’s not even close.
Sure, the stoppage was controversial, but look at how it came into being. Henderson’s eye was hurt in the first exchange of the bout, he plodded across the cage trying to measure an overhand right, and he was dropped in the next flurry.
When, before maybe 2013, did you see Dan Henderson in that situation?
Almost never. Unfortunately though, it’s become something of a pattern for the 44-year-old in recent bouts.
It started in his loss to Vitor Belfort, a heinous collision of his face with Belfort’s shin that ended in a TKO loss. No harm there; Belfort was kicking people’s heads off all over the place during his infamous run on testosterone-replacement therapy.
Then there was his rematch with Shogun Rua, a win that easily could have been a loss if not for his notorious right hand saving his less notorious backside. Rua had him on rollerskates, badly hurt, before he overcommitted in pursuit of a finish and Henderson capitalized in the midst of his daze. He connected, literally sending the Brazilian rolling across the cage in a heap and making everyone ignore the trouble he’d been in only seconds before.
Soon after that, Daniel Cormier absolutely mauled him, throwing him around like a child and choking him out with ease. Losing to Cormier is nothing to be ashamed of, but not offering any degree of resistance is unheard of for a man of Henderson’s caliber.
The fight against Mousasi was his first at middleweight in nearly six years, a drop in weight that occurred when the big boys got too big and the hope was one of career rejuvenation. Two fairly unremarkable exchanges left Henderson cut and then unconscious (for however brief he was, he was) and the owner of his fifth loss in six fights. The lone win was the draining win over Rua.
The fact of the matter is that Henderson is a legend, one of the best to ever compete in MMA. He’s done it all, save for holding a UFC title, and he’s had chances at those in two divisions. But he’s an old man in the game now, one that will be chewed up by the young talent coming up behind him.
Regardless of that fact, though, it’s no one’s place to tell him to stop. He’s his own man and he’ll make his own choices, even if the entire sporting universe is pleading with him just to go home. He’s earned the right to go out how he sees fit with the career he’s had.
That said, he’s outright not the man he once was inside the cage. Even if he can’t see that, everyone on the other side of the chain link can.
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