At long last, Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua met in the Octagon at UFC 139 and certainly didn’t disappoint, with Hendo earning a hard-fought victory by unanimous decision over Shogun in one of the greatest bouts in the history of mixed martial arts.
The two former Light Heavyweight champions, Hendon in Strikeforce and Shogun in the UFC, bludgeoned and bloodied each other over five grueling rounds, after which both fighters congratulated each other and wondered which superstar would win on the judges’ scorecards.
So did everyone else at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Joe Rogan included.
The fight began with a spirited first round—and an even more spirited right hand from Hendo, who went in for a guillotine on Shogun but couldn’t quite pull it off, settling instead for a flurry of fists on his Brazilian challenger. Undeterred (this turned out to be a recurring theme), Shogun came back with a big blow of his own, turning the tables on Hendo by taking him to the mat and getting in a few punches for good measure.
Hendo appeared to be in troubled but managed to stave off an early defeat by hanging on to Rua’s leg. The two returned to their feet and traded a few blows until the horn sounded on a round that proved to be the entire fight in microcosm in the end.
From there, these two giants of the Light Heavyweight Division who had long hoped to meet in the Octagon, dished and absorbed punishment for four more edge-of-your-seat rounds. The second round came and went largely without incident as the combatants traded blows.
It wasn’t until the third round that the bout took a definitive turn, as Hendo clocked a weary Shogun with a pair of strong uppercuts before slugging him to the mat. Hendo wasted little time pouncing on Rua and unleashed his fists of fury, bloodying and bruising Shogun’s face without remorse.
Yet, after all that, Shogun persisted, fighting through a failed submission attempt by Hendo to get back on his feet, much to the amazement of the attendant crowd.
The tide turned in Shogun’s favor from that point on, as the big Brazilian seemed to regain his strength and composure with each passing second. Hendo spent the final two rounds in retreat, looking tired and injured, while a winded Rua strung together a series of full mounts with weary blows and ill-fated submission attempts sprinkled between the blood and sweat that dripped from his beaten brow.
In the end, it was Hendo whose performance curried greater favor from the judges at cage side, his big rounds coming off more convincingly than Shogun’s.
Now, with his return to the UFC after a 28-month hiatus a rousing success, Hendo will look forward to a shot at the Light Heavyweight Championship that eluded him in his previous stint, awaiting the winner of the Jon Jones-Lyoto Machida title fight at UFC 140 and hoping that Rashad Evans finds a way to knock himself out of the running once again.
As for Shogun, he has absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. He battled back from the brink of defeat to come within striking distance of another win over a big-ticket contender. If anything, the resilience that Rua demonstrated will only strengthen his profile among the ever-growing legions of MMA fans around the world.
Though he certainly wouldn’t have minded having more to show for his efforts on Saturday night than a severely swollen mug.
The real winners in all of this, though, were the fans, who were treated to arguably the greatest fight the UFC has ever seen. Somewhere, UFC president Dana White is smiling…and shouting into a microphone next to Joe Rogan.
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