Although these competitors never crossed paths during their tenures in PRIDE FC, an anticipated bout between Mauricio “Shogun” Rua and Dan Henderson was bound to happen at some point.
Thankfully, the bout will materialize this weekend when both Rua and Henderson headline UFC 139 in front of a sold out arena at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. A win for either Henderson or Rua will catapult one of them into the title picture at 205 pounds.
And in a bout that has taken nearly five years to setup, Rua is just happy to face the former PRIDE champion.
“Back in the PRIDE days, I always thought that this fight could happen,” Rua told MMAJunkie.com. “But PRIDE collapsed, and the fight never happened. But here we are now.”
Both fighters have endured separate career paths since the Japanese-based promotion was acquired by the UFC in 2007.
Rua would begin his UFC career with a disappointing loss to Forrest Griffin, but rebounded with wins over fighters like Chuck Liddell, Mark Coleman and Lyoto Machida, capturing the UFC light heavyweight title in the process.
After dropping both the PRIDE light heavyweight and middleweight titles in back-to-back losses to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Anderson Silva, Henderson would go on a three-fight win streak, which included a highlight reel knockout of Michael Bisping at UFC 100.
Henderson was acquired by Strikeforce in 2009, where he would earn victories over Renato Sobral, Rafael Cavalcante and Fedor Emelianenko. It’s evident that Henderson has a handful of experience to his name at the age of 41, yet Rua still considers him a legitimate threat in the light heavyweight division.
“He was always an aggressive fighter and he still is,” he said. “He has very heavy hands and very heavy strikes. He’s evolved, but he’s always been a dangerous fighter.”
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