Chicago will be the home of the upcoming epic battle between two of the greatest MMA legends of all-time, Fedor Emelianenko and Dan Henderson. As the current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Henderson will be moving up in weight to fight the 230-pound Emelianenko in a fight that may well define his career as one of the most fearless fighters ever to compete.
With a 27-8 professional record, Henderson has seemingly done it all in the sport. While many fighters in the sport have padded their records by fighting lesser-skilled opponents, Henderson has made a habit of fighting the best competition that he possibly can.
As such, he has been rewarded by becoming one of the most decorated athletes in the history of the sport. Not only that, but he has done it by being elite in two weight classes! In fact, Henderson is the only fighter in MMA to have held two major championships simultaneously, when he held both the Pride 205-pound and 183-pound titles in 2007.
When Pride was purchased by Zuffa, Henderson was a consensus top pound-for-pound fighter and appeared to be the man who may have the best chance of supplanting UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Though he went on to lose both his title unification bouts against Silva and Rampage Jackson, Henderson did what some thought was impossible at the time by actually winning the first round on the judges’ scorecards in his fight with Silva.
He went on to win three straight fights for the UFC, including an absolutely crushing knockout over Michael Bisping in his final fight for the promotion, before departing for Strikeforce.
A tough fight against then-middleweight champion Jake Shields left Henderson fans feeling empty as their hero had fallen in three straight title fights.
But a move back to light heavyweight saw Henderson crush Renato “Babalu” Sobral to earn a shot at the Strikeforce 205-pound champion, Rafael Cavalcante in March. Hendo proved his greatness once again in that fight with “Feijao” when he won the title by knocking Cavalcante out in the third round.
Without a clear-cut top contender for his belt and as he gets closer to his 41st birthday, Henderson is now at the point in his career when he has the opportunity to start having some “dream” fights. The fight he will have against Fedor Emelianenko on July 30 will be just that.
This highly anticipated fight will be met with a tremendous amount of attention from the mixed martial arts community as two of the all-time greats will meet. But despite Fedor’s relatively small 230-pound frame, it will be Henderson who will be moving up in weight to fight the former Pride heavyweight champion.
Hendo is currently listed as a +180 underdog in the fight and there are many who believe that number is generous given the natural size disadvantage he will have as well as the six years of age he will be conceding. But Henderson is not going to give up just because the odds are stacked against him. He has been the underdog many times in his career and still come out with his hand raised in the end.
A victory over the former consensus No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world would certainly do wonders to continue solidifying Henderson as one of the pound-for-pound best of ever. Not only would he be able to say that he defeated another one of the greatest fighters of all-time, but he may very well end the career of the man who goes down as the best heavyweight mixed martial artist we have ever seen.
After an embarrassing, one-sided loss to Antonio “Big Foot” Silva earlier this year, Emelianenko spoke immediately about the possibility of that fight being his last. Though we now know that he will not retire yet, a third straight loss, especially to a fighter who he is larger than, would likely put “The Last Emperor’s” career to rest.
Quite frankly, this fight is win-win and must be a dream for Dan Henderson.
A loss will likely be written off as a loss to a fellow top fighter, and Henderson will still keep his Strikeforce light heavyweight title. But a win over Fedor could be the biggest moment in an already legendary career.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com