Michael Bisping not only held on to his UFC middleweight championship, he exacted revenge that was seven years in the making against Dan Henderson.
The Brit defeated Hendo via unanimous decision in the main event at UFC 204 on Saturday.
Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times tweeted the scores:
The early stages of the fight were characterized by a lot of anticipation but very little violence. Bisping sought to gauge distance, while Henderson looked to land his trademark overhand right.
All of that anticipation exploded in a frenzy as Henderson briefly turned the clock back to 2009 and landed an H-bomb that nearly finished Bisping, but The Count held on for dear life and lived to see the second round.
Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com summed up the round for Henderson:
The frenetic finish to the opening round was a harbinger of things to come.
Bisping‘s conditioning appeared to be the X-factor in the second round. He was the fresher fighter, landing combinations from range and rocking the 46-year-old.
Then the H-bomb happened. Again.
Henderson landed another massive overhand right that put Bisping down, and the conclusion of the round once again featured Hendo ground-and-pound.
The UFC posted the near finish:
Bisping settled in the third. Henderson’s overhand right landed a few times, but not to the devastating effect of the first two rounds. Meanwhile, Bisping‘s volume only increased as he mixed in leg and body kicks with additional feints that kept Henderson guessing going into the championship rounds.
Connor Ruebusch of Bloody Elbow noted Henderson’s apparent fatigue:
The fourth round became one of the most interesting in the fight. Henderson was able to get an additional five minutes to regroup after Bisping landed a kick to the groin early in the round. Hendo came out a little more energized and actually backed up Bisping toward the fence for the first time without landing the right hand.
Josh Gross of the Guardian scored the round for Henderson:
The fifth round would turn out to be much like the rest of the fight. Bisping landed more volume, but Henderson kept things interesting with the more powerful strikes at times. Ultimately, it was enough for the judges to see the fight for the champion.
The win gave Bisping an important milestone, per the UFC Twitter account:
After the fight, Henderson made sure to let the Manchester crowd know that this bout would be his swan song, per Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting:
This might not have been the most logical title fight the UFC has ever put together, but it was good for some nostalgia. Henderson’s win over Bisping at UFC 100 was one of the most iconic knockouts in the history of the UFC.
To bring that full circle in Bisping‘s home country was an easy narrative to sell.
However, the tough part of holding on to the belt for The Count starts now.
The middleweight division has a nice group of contenders right now made up of former champions in Chris Weidman and Luke Rockhold and legitimate title threats in Jacare Souza and Yoel Romero. Bisping particularly has his eyes set on the upcoming matchup between Weidman and Romero to find out who he’ll be taking on next.
“Chris Weidman is fighting Yoel Romero. You know why I love that fight so much—because one of them has to lose, and I can’t wait to find out which one it’s going to be,” Bisping said, per Damon Martin of Fox Sports. “May the best man win and then I’ll fight the winner of that fight. One of them has to lose.”
Who Bisping fights next, though, isn’t necessarily in his hands. The man he beat to earn the championship—Rockhold—is also worth keeping an eye on. He’ll take on Souza on November 27 in Australia.
Regardless of who fights Bisping next, this fight marks the end of one of the most well-known fighters of the previous generation in Henderson.
The 46-year-old came into the fight not avoiding the fact that this would be his retirement fight, per Mike Bohn of Rolling Stone.
“I was ready to move on after the last fight, but obviously this is an opportunity I wouldn’t pass up. I feel good about this fight being my last fight. Win or lose I’m going to make sure I give it everything I have and make sure I have no regrets. That’s all I can do in life and in this sport.”
Henderson was a two-time champion in Pride as well as a UFC tournament winner, but he is always brought up on the list of the best fighters to win a UFC title.
Regardless of whether the timing was ever right for him to win the title, UFC 204 witnessed the end of a Hall of Famer’s career in Henderson.
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