Dan Henderson isn’t easily gotten to.
As one of the most beloved mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters in the sport’s history, Henderson delivered countless brutal highlight-reel knockouts among his 32 career wins (32-15). While most might assume his rivalry with former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion, Michael Bisping, was his most heated pairing and most satisfying knockout of the bunch, it wasn’t.
Henderson’s last victory came devastatingly at UFC 199, the same night that Bisping won gold in July 2016. Before “The Count’ got revenge on another of his rivals, Luke Rockhold, in the evening’s main event, Henderson took on former Bellator Middleweight kingpin, Hector Lombard. A worrisome match up on paper for “Hendo,” the former PRIDE Fighting Championship titlist wound up getting the job done with a nasty head kick to elbow combo in round two.
“When he first came here from Australia, he came to my gym for about three months,” Henderson said on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “He was a big bully just trying to knock people out warming up. When you’re supposed to be going easy he’s just trying to hurt people. It would happen every time I’d be out of town. I’d come back, I’d hear about it.
“So when I went to fight Hector, we’re in the face-off and he asked me, ‘Who says I’m a bully?’ I’m like, ‘Everybody. Everybody said you’re a bully,’” he continued. “And he just couldn’t get over that and I’m like, ‘You motherf—ker. This isn’t the time or place for that. I’m gonna f—k you up.’ Those last couple of elbows were a little more personal. It’s probably the only fight I’ve ever really felt that way where I really wanted to f—k that guy up.”
Henderson closed out his career in his follow-up fight to the Lombard win at age 46, making him the oldest competitor to ever challenge for UFC gold. Unfortunately for the legendary knockout artist, he came up short when rematching the aforementioned champion, Bisping, losing a hard-fought unanimous decision in Manchester, England in October 2016.