Following the UFC 204 pay-per-view in Manchester, England on Saturday evening, UFC President Dana White appeared on the official UFC 204 Post-Fight Show on FOX Sports 2 and shared his thoughts on the event, the retirement of MMA legend Dan Henderson and more.
Regarding the Bisping-Hendo rematch for the UFC Middleweight Title on Saturday night, the UFC boss pointed out that he envisioned that fight going a couple of ways, but didn’t really picture things going the way they did on Saturday night.
“Dan Henderson, I tweeted during the fight that he’s built out of leather and rock, man,” said White of the MMA legend who retired after coming up short in a close decision loss to Bisping, as he claimed he would do prior to the fight whether he got his hand raised or not. “The guy is so durable, so tough, was in the fight the whole time. I never pictured that thing being a competitive five-round fight. I thought Henderson might catch him early, like he did, or Bisping would just pick him apart and be too fast for him throughout the fight. It was a damn good fight.”
White continued, pointing out that even at age 46, had Henderson not retired and had he stuck around and fought a few more times, there are still a number of fighters who compete in his weight class who would view him as a “scary” opponent.
“At his age now — what is he, is he 46? — he’s 46,” said White. “I’m 47, I can barely get on a treadmill in the morning, let alone go in and fight five-round main events in another country. Dan Henderson is an absolute warrior, one of the toughest guys to ever do it, and he’s still scary at this age and everything. If he didn’t want to retire today, he’s still scary to people in that division.”
What did Dan Henderson’s peers in the MMA community think of his retirement after his fight with Michael Bisping at UFC 204 on Saturday night? Read a long list of posts from a number of top level fighters and other MMA personalities commenting on the retirement of Hendo by clicking here.
For video highlights of Dan Henderson’s final pro MMA fight at UFC 204, click here.
For a video archive of the UFC 204 post-fight press conference featuring Dan Henderson, click here.
For a post-UFC 204 backstage interview with Dan Henderson, click here.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Dana White quotes from the UFC 204 Post-Fight Show on FOX Sports 1.