In their other lives, UFC stars Chael Sonnen and Rashad Evans suit up and become television analysts for Fuel TV. It was in this role Saturday night that Chael Sonnen experienced the latest negative consequence of his mouth writing a check his…well, in this case I guess it was a check that Dan Henderson’s ass couldn’t cash.
Before UFC 157, Sonnen the analyst said that he’d lick Rashad Evans’ shoe if his long-time Team Quest training partner Henderson lost to Lyoto Machida in their featured bout Saturday night. After Machida won a split decision over Henderson Chael made good on his promise and made sweet mouth love to Evans’ shoe.
Yes, that was a needlessly disgusting sentence and this post is somewhat pointless in the grand scheme of Saturday’s historic event. But you’re a damn liar if you’re telling me you didn’t press ‘play’ on the video above to watch ‘The American Bad Ass’ French kiss Rashad’s boot once you read the headline.
In related news, Henderson isn’t surprised that one of the judges managed to somehow think he won the fight against Machida, he’s apparently upset that all three didn’t.
“I won the fight, but not officially. I hit him whenever he wanted to fight. He ran away most of the time,” Hendo said at the UFC 157 post fight press conference.
Listen, the fight was close-fought and the judges had to pay attention but there is no question that Machida landed the harder shots and more often, mostly thwarted Hendo’s wrestling while doing more with his own offensive wrestling and ground work than the former two-division champ did. Yes, Machida made Henderson whiff with many of his leaping over hand rights and left hooks but I’d hardly call that “running.”
Was Henderson surprised that his opponent would try to strategically stay out of range until he was ready to throw his own shots? Had he seen Lyoto Machida fight before?
In any case, Henderson gets the right to complain about this decision (and perhaps everything else he complains about, ie. losing title shots that he himself voluntarily gave up, Anderson Silva ‘ducking’ him even though ‘The Spider’ smoked him in under two rounds, Jon Jones existing, etc.) when he admits that he was lucky to get decisions in some of his biggest career fights. Go ahead, re-watch his all-time great fight against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua that made him the #1 Contender, his split decision win over Yuki Kondo and his title fight against Murilo Bustamante.
The honest truth is that Dan Henderson is one of this writer’s favorite fighters and one of the best and most fearless competitors in the sport’s history. This is why it hurts so much to hear him veer into Matt Hughes smack-talking, excuse-making territory more and more often.
Suck it up, get back to the drawing board and do what you do best, Dan – kick ass. Don’t let Chael Sonnen’s shoe licking have happened in vain.