UFC 139 will mark the return of former Pride champion and current Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson to the UFC.Welcoming him back to the Octagon will be former UFC champion Shogun Rua, who is coming off a dominant knockout win over Forrest Griffin at …
UFC 139 will mark the return of former Pride champion and current Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson to the UFC.
Welcoming him back to the Octagon will be former UFC champion Shogun Rua, who is coming off a dominant knockout win over Forrest Griffin at UFC 134.
This highly anticipated bout between former Pride stars will mark the first time these two legends will have faced each other and, more importantly, the matchup will be a battle for the top contender spot in the light-heavyweight division.
Here’s how these two fighters stack up against each other in this head-to-toe breakdown.
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson is living a little bit better these days.Though the Team Quest fighter has recorded many of his career victories in the middleweight class, Henderson is now enjoying himself in the 205-pound c…
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson is living a little bit better these days.
Though the Team Quest fighter has recorded many of his career victories in the middleweight class, Henderson is now enjoying himself in the 205-pound class.
During his tenure with the San Jose based promotion, Henderson went 3-1 with the organization and is currently riding a three-fight win streak, with his latest victory coming at the expense of former PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko this past July, who suffered a first-round TKO loss to Hendo.
With his recent accolades, Henderson had an excellent bargaining chip as a free agent, however, has since re-signed with his former employers in the UFC.
Henderson will waste little time in returning to action as he meets the familiar Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on November 19. The two former PRIDE stalwarts will meet as the main event for UFC 139, which takes place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
The mixed martial arts icon isn’t disillusioned by any means. He knows he has a tough fight ahead of him, though he holds little back when it comes in comparison. Henderson, a former two-time Olympian, finds that he has a decided advantage over the Brazilian in nearly all facets of the game.
“Shogun’s a tough fighter, he’s been around a long time,” said Henderson, who spoke with ProMMANow.com.
“He’s been in there with some of the top guys and [has] done well. He’s well-rounded, throwing some nice knees and nice kicks, [and] he’s got some power in his punches.”
Perhaps to his advantage, the two light heavyweights will compete in a non-title, five-round affair. Conditioning has long been an issue that has plagued Rua, with battles against Forrest Griffin and Jon Jones in the past resulting in defeat due to his poor level of stamina.
Henderson, though, has always been a well-conditioned athlete—that is as long as the Californian, who recently turned 41, does not not have to cut an obscene amount of weight. Henderson regularly walks around just a few pounds shy of the 205-pound limit.
“I think I’m better in every aspect and should definitely do well in that fight. It’s a five-rounder, but I think I’ll be able to wear him out, so it could be an advantage to me.
UFC 139 goes down November 19th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, and the major players are convening at the San Pedro Square Market right now for a little press-conference action. Click “play” on the live YouTube player above to see Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Cung Le, and UFC president Dana White field questions from the media in attendance beginning at 1 p.m. local time.
UFC 139 goes down November 19th at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, and the major players are convening at the San Pedro Square Market right now for a little press-conference action. Click “play” on the live YouTube player above to see Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Cung Le, and UFC president Dana White field questions from the media in attendance beginning at 1 p.m. local time.
Filed under: UFCCung Le isn’t the only fighter to find out the hard way that acting and professional fighting don’t always mix, especially when done in the wrong order, but at least he used it as a learning experience, he said at Tuesday’s UFC 139 pres…
Cung Le isn’t the only fighter to find out the hard way that acting and professional fighting don’t always mix, especially when done in the wrong order, but at least he used it as a learning experience, he said at Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference.
“I actually learned my lesson the first time when I came back against Scott Smith,” Le said. “I wasn’t very busy training when I was on the movie set. I was just more focused on getting into character.”
He started off well enough against Smith in their first meeting in December of 2009. But his lack of training caught up to him in the final round, and Smith came out of nowhere to score the upset via knockout of a fading, winded Le.
When they signed on to face each other in a rematch some seven months later, he had every opportunity to make the same mistake. Fortunately for Le, experience — particularly the painful kind – is an excellent teacher.
“I was doing some film work, [but] I made sure I trained every day and I stayed in shape,” he said, adding that this time around, as he prepares to face Wanderlei Silva at UFC 139 in San Jose, Calif., he’s been in the gym since February.
“I am focused on this fight, so right now it’s all about being an MMA fighter,” said Le.
For Silva, who stepped in as a replacement for the injured Vitor Belfort, the stakes are even higher. UFC president Dana White has made it clear that he thinks Silva might need to hang up the gloves after his knockout loss to Chris Leben at UFC 132, and this could be the Brazilian’s last chance to prove to his boss that he still has some fight left in him.
“I love fighting. I love the sport. I grew up inside the ring, inside the Octagon. I want to fight as long as I can,” Silva told reporters.
When asked if he felt that his back was against the wall in the fight with Le, he didn’t argue. “Some guys fight better in that position. I’m thinking I am one of [those] guys,” he said.
Le, a decorated Sanshou kickboxer who turned to MMA relatively late in life and fought the entirety of his four-year career in Strikeforce up until this point, said he specifically sought out a deal with the UFC because he wanted to fight in the Octagon, and not simply because he wanted to be on this card in his adopted hometown of San Jose.
“It really means a lot,” he said. “I’ve fought on many platforms, different styles, but being a UFC fighter now, being the co-main event, definitely is a dream come true. Just earlier this morning I was looking at the picture where I was at the refugee camp, and now being in the co-main event of the UFC, it’s a dream come true. I’m very excited and I’m going to be ready to rock and roll and give the fans what they want to see.”
Filed under: UFCFor the first time in a little over two years, Dan Henderson is a UFC fighter again. Judging by his gentle ribbing of UFC president Dana White during Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference in San Jose, not too much has changed about his rel…
For the first time in a little over two years, Dan Henderson is a UFC fighter again. Judging by his gentle ribbing of UFC president Dana White during Tuesday’s UFC 139 press conference in San Jose, not too much has changed about his relationship with his boss.
“I guess it’s a little bit ironic that every time I win a title somewhere Dana has to buy the company to get me back,” Henderson joked before adding that he was glad to be back since “the best match-ups for me are here in the UFC.”
As for White, who’s traded verbal barbs with Henderson before, during, and after contentious contract negotiations in the past, he seems eager to let bygones be bygones. Especially now that Henderson is back in the fold and headlining UFC 139 against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
“Dan and I get along just fine,” said White. “We butt heads here and there, but we get along great. I respect him as a fighter. He’s a durable, tough guy who’s been out there beating the best in the world. I can’t hate him for knocking Fedor [Emelianenko] out either, so…I’m happy to have him back.”
Henderson gives up his Strikeforce light heavyweight title to return to the UFC for the first time since his knockout victory over Michael Bisping at UFC 100. After beating “Feijao” Cavalcante for the Strikeforce belt and then knocking out Emelianenko in a non-title affair, Henderson said, he “wasn’t excited about anybody coming up that I might be fighting other than the guys that were going to be in the UFC.”
One fight he is excited about, it seems, is a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
“There’s only one fight that I’d probably fight at 185 [pounds] and he won’t fight right now, I guess,” Henderson said in reference to Silva, adding that the champion “said he’s hurt.”
“Everybody could speculate, and I’d be one of those same people, but that’s the fight that we originally talked about,” Henderson said. “But evidently he hurt himself.”
Sensing perhaps that Henderson wasn’t totally sold on the injury story, White stepped in to back up his champion, insisting that Silva was suffering from a shoulder injury after his win over Yushin Okami at UFC 134 and had been told by his doctor to take eight weeks off.
“Listen, Anderson Silva’s fought everybody,” White said. “It’s not like he’s ducking fights. He’s never ducked a fight and when he’s ready, and if this thing goes right, and if Dan wants to cut that weight, then we can talk about Anderson Silva.”
Of course, to even make it a conversation worth having the 41-year-old Henderson first has to get past Rua on November 19. Even if he does, and if he continues to lobby for a rematch with Silva, the UFC might rightfully wonder whether Henderson will be sufficiently interested in sticking around at middleweight should he win the title.
After all, there’s not much benefit to giving a guy at shot at the 185-pound strap if, by his own admission, he’s “not fond of cutting weight anymore.” At least that’s something he won’t have to worry about for the next couple of months. The fight with Rua may not require him to drop too many pounds, but it will take just about everything he’s got if he wants to come out on top.
The consummate crowd favorite says that he actually took some time to decide whether or not he’d have enough time to prepare for the short notice bout as a fill in for Le’s original opponent, Vitor Belfort, who bowed out of the event due to injury.
“I was just chilling. I was at home with my son. These days I’ve been teaching classes at my gym. I got a text asking if I wanted to fight at UFC 139. I was in shock. But a good shock. I was planning on fighting again, but I didn’t think it would be so fast. I was preparing to go back in February. I wasn’t sure right away,” he reveals. “I was thinking if I needed more than eight weeks, but I was already conditioned from [my fight with Chris Leben in July]. I took a break from training, since I had no fight scheduled, but now I’m already training good and hard. I was very happy. It was a great surprise.”
The consummate crowd favorite says that he actually took some time to decide whether or not he’d have enough time to prepare for the short notice bout as a fill in for Le’s original opponent, Vitor Belfort, who bowed out of the event due to injury.
“I was just chilling. I was at home with my son. These days I’ve been teaching classes at my gym. I got a text asking if I wanted to fight at UFC 139. I was in shock. But a good shock. I was planning on fighting again, but I didn’t think it would be so fast. I was preparing to go back in February. I wasn’t sure right away,” he reveals. “I was thinking if I needed more than eight weeks, but I was already conditioned from [my fight with Chris Leben in July]. I took a break from training, since I had no fight scheduled, but now I’m already training good and hard. I was very happy. It was a great surprise.”
“The Axe Murderer” says he was still disheartened by his loss to Leben and that the offer to fight Le made him shake it off and refocus on training for the bout, which he says will be an entertaining one.
“I was very sad after my last fight with the results, but this fight cheered me up and I want to give a great performance for my fans. Cung Le is a very good opponent. He has good muay thai. He is a good athlete. I think this will be a fight with lots of movement. There will be legs flying everywhere. I will be training a lot of kicks. I’m gonna kick him a lot. If he comes around with those spinning kicks… if he hits me in my stomach like he likes, I will get very mad,” he explains. “Don’t bring that kick because I am already training the defense for it. He goes one, two and gives a little step forward [and] he spins after the step, I already got that one. That one won’t work. Go find another one.”
Although he gives his opponent props, Silva displays some uncharacteristic swagger when talking about who will have the crowd advantage in San Jose.
“I will be facing a good opponent in a co-main event. He will be at home; he is from San Jose, but I know I also have a lot of fans in San Jose. It will be a great competition,” Wand says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this time the fans root against Cung Le. I am a fan favorite. Don’t be sad, Cung Le, if the fans from San Jose cheer for me more than for you. Don’t be jealous; when you fight against someone else they’ll root for you.”
For Silva, his fans have always been as, if not more important to him than fighting itself. as such, it’s no surprise that he is dedicating the bout to the fans who keep pushing him to compete regardless of whether he wins or loses.
“My fans who are with me, like I say, are not my fans. They are my friends. You guys are the reason why I keep trying. We have to keep trying. I lost a few, but some time I will get back to winning. It’s a question of time. I will fix my mistakes and perfect my game. Soon I will meet victory again and that will be a great joyful moment. I want to thank you guys from deep in my heart for all the affection and all the strength you gave me after my last fight,” he says. “If there was one good result in my last fight, it was to see that you guys are with me no matter what. That is priceless; you are my fans for life — my friends for life. I hope to have the opportunity to shake your hands and hug each one of you — you who cheer for me, who send me messages, who get happy and sad with me. I hope to pay back the affection and respect you guys have for me and all of the energy and strength that you give me. I hope you guys are all successful at your goals and that God keeps blessing you and your families. Thank you all. God bless.”
Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion 
For the first time in a little over two years,