One of the most decorated MMA fighters of all time, former Pride FC two weight champion and UFC veteran Dan Henderson notched another massive win at UFC 199. Facing the much younger Hector Lombard on the June 4 pay-per-view in California, the 45-year old mixed martial arts legend scored a come-from-behind knockout that could’ve essentially
One of the most decorated MMA fighters of all time, former Pride FC two weight champion and UFC veteran Dan Henderson notched another massive win at UFC 199. Facing the much younger Hector Lombard on the June 4 pay-per-view in California, the 45-year old mixed martial arts legend scored a come-from-behind knockout that could’ve essentially wrapped up his amazing career. As it turned out though, ‘Hendo’s’ nemesis Michael Bisping fought at UFC 199 too, and ended up walking home with the belt that night.
‘The Count’ took on Luke Rockhold on just two weeks notice and starched his man in the first round. A flurry of clean shots landed to the jaw of ‘Rocky,’ sending the former champ to the ground with his eyeballs rolling as his English foe celebrated the win. The start of Bisping’s reign as UFC champion after 10 years in the UFC could ironically extend Henderson’s fighting career by one more fight.
As we heard earlier today, Michael Bisping trashed Dan Henderson and said he wants a rematch with the ‘old man.’ The two first met at UFC 100 where Henderson destroyed ‘The Count’s’ jaw before putting a stamping end to their rivalry with a now iconic flying forearm to the jaw. The stars never really aligned for a rematch between the two until now seven years later, where Bisping is the champion and ‘Hendo’ is counting down the days to the golf course time he deserves.
Dan Henderson, left, knocks out Michael Bisping during UFC 100 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on July 11, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Francis Specker
So what does Dan Henderson think of a rematch with Michael Bisping? It’s hard to think that the ageing legend could have much more than one fight left in him at this stage, but of course the feud with Bisping before UFC 100 and the subsequent highlight reel finish gives weight to the possibility of this fight happening.
Skip to page 2 for Henderson’s plans for his last fight…
It goes without saying that Dan Henderson has had one of the most storied careers in mixed martial arts (MMA) history. He added yet another chapter to his astonishing track record with a stunning knockout of Hector Lombard 10 days ago (June 4, 2016) at UFC 199. In his post-fight interview, “Hendo” mentioned that he may
It goes without saying that Dan Henderson has had one of the most storied careers in mixed martial arts (MMA) history.
He added yet another chapter to his astonishing track record with a stunning knockout of Hector Lombard 10 days ago (June 4, 2016) at UFC 199. In his post-fight interview, “Hendo” mentioned that he may have just been in his last battle.
If we have indeed seen the last of Henderson, he will leave behind an unassailable legacy. Over the course of a career that began back in 1997, he fought probably the most difficult slate of opponents in the history of the sport. Across three weight classes, from middleweight to heavyweight, Henderson consistently fought the best of the best. He squared off with the likes of both Nogueiras, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson, Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin, Michael Bisping, Fedor Emelianenko, Daniel Cormier, Lyoto Machida, and Mauricio Rua.
This list will look back at the accomplishments of a true all-time great and consensus first ballot hall of famer.
A lifelong dream was recognized over a week ago when UFC veteran Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping downed the now-former champion Luke Rockhold in the main event of UFC 199, to capture the first UFC title in the Brit’s decade-long UFC career. Now Bisping is as cocky and confident as ever, as he is prepared to
A lifelong dream was recognized over a week ago when UFC veteran Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping downed the now-former champion Luke Rockhold in the main event of UFC 199, to capture the first UFC title in the Brit’s decade-long UFC career.
Now Bisping is as cocky and confident as ever, as he is prepared to take on all challengers for his first UFC title defense. In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour this week, Bisping spoke on who that challenger just might be:
“Well, you know of course, I’m no spring chicken,” he said. “I’m 37. It’s not like I’ve got 10 years ahead of me. There’s certain fights that I want, there’s certain people I’d like to get revenge on, and there’s certainly viable contenders. So there’s many different ways you can go and there are many ways you can look at things.
“Now I know Chris Weidman is bitching and getting on like a 12-year-old on Instagram and stuff, talking about me and directing insults at me and this and that. The fact of the matter is that Chris just lost to the guy that I just knocked out.
He wasn’t scheduled to fight me, he was scheduled for a rematch with Luke Rockhold. So as far as I’m concerned, Chris Weidman needs to win a fight.
Chris Weidman is out of the equation. Chris Weidman is coming off a loss, and unless you’re called Chael Sonnen you don’t get title shots coming off a loss.”
Another viable contender the champion mentioned is No. 3-ranked Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, who is coming hot off of a first round thrashing of Vitor Belfort at UFC 198 in May:
“Jacare of course is a very, very viable contender,” he said. “So he’s certainly in the running. A rematch with Luke Rockhold, again, I think Luke should rematch with Chris and then whoever wins that is probably the No. 1 contender.
Yes me and Luke are one and one, but that first fight was two years ago and this rematch wasn’t even close. I knocked him out in three minutes.
I knocked him out cold, so maybe Chris and Luke, they have the match that was scheduled and the winner of that is the No. 1 contender.”
A rematch with Dan Henderson is also an intriguing matchup to Bisping, as the pair met at UFC 100 back in 2009 that saw Henderson putting Bisping to sleep early with a nasty right hand. Now with ‘Hendo’ coming towards the end of his career, and riding the momentum of the devastating knockout win over Hector Lombard at UFC 199, a rematch between the two makes sense now more than ever:
“Of course, there’s been talk about Dan Henderson, which kind of came out of the blue,” Bisping said. “Dan Henderson kind of tweeted it out, and Joe Rogan put a picture on Instagram, and that seems to be getting a lot of traction.
Of course, that is a fight that I would love. There hasn’t been any kind of offer or anything like that, but that’s a fight that I would take because everybody knows about UFC 100, and Dan Henderson still has an image of him floating above my head while I’m knocked out as his logo. So, I would like to put him in his place.”
“One thing I would like to do is defend the belt in the U.K.,” he said. “I would love to defend the belt in Manchester later in the year.”
Later in the interview Helwani asked Bisping on his thoughts of a potential showdown against former 170-pound king Georges St-Pierre, an idea that seemed to intrigue the new champ:
“It kind of has now that you mentioned it,” he said. “As you said, fighting Georges St-Pierre [would be] great, and of course for the title for who has the most wins in UFC history…I mean, that alone is a fantastic tagline and great promotion.
And of course, the numbers would be fantastic with Georges St-Pierre, he’s a massive, proven draw, and at the end of the day we’ll try to generate as much money as possible.
“I do want to defend the belt, and I want to make as much money as I can in the process. So, I would certainly be open to sending Georges St-Pierre back to a movie set because that would be a fight I would definitely win and if Georges St-Pierre is listening, any time you fancy it, just be a man and sign on the dotted line and your return will be short-lived.”
“Whether it’s Georges St-Pierre, Dan Henderson, Jacare Souza — who ever it is, line them up and I’ll knock them down.”
When former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman was forced to withdraw from his scheduled title rematch with Luke Rockhold at June 4’s UFC 199, top contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was the UFC’s first choice to fill in. “Jacare” was dealing with a knee injury, however, and the promotion called on long-time divisional mainstay Michael Bisping
When former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman was forced to withdraw from his scheduled title rematch with Luke Rockhold at June 4’s UFC 199, top contender Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was the UFC’s first choice to fill in.
“Jacare” was dealing with a knee injury, however, and the promotion called on long-time divisional mainstay Michael Bisping to step up and face off with Rockhold.
Bisping would end up shocking the world and knocking Rockhold out cold in the very first round to become the new undisputed 185-pound champion.
Recently speaking with MMAFighting.com, Souza said that he’ll be ready to return by November, and that he feels deserving of the next title shot, although he may ‘spank’ someone else before the shot at gold presents itself:
“I’m not afraid at all, I think I deserve the title shot,” said Souza in response to the idea that he’d be passed over after declining to fill in for any injured Weidman at UFC 199. “Even if they give me somebody else to fight before the title shot, I might take it and spank someone. But I know I have the right to be the next one.”
Despite holding a very impressive 6-1 Octagon record, Souza may very well be passed over, as the title shot could be awarded to Weidman. The ex-champion recently called out Bisping for a fight in his home of New York on November 12, 2016 at UFC 205 which may be too lucrative of an opportunity for the UFC to pass up.
Yoel Romero is another top contender in the title discussion, and he actually owns a win over “Jacare” last December, albeit a controversial victory at best.
While admitting that he should’ve prepared better for that bout, Souza also claimed that “The Soldier of God” fought dirty:
“I probably should have been better prepared for that fight, but I believe I did a good job,” added Souza regarding his defeat to Romero. “I came back, I showed heart. And he was not loyal. He kind of fought dirty, held the cage twice. It is what it is.”
Who should receive the next shot at gold in the stacked 185-pound division?
Apparently Nate Diaz and Jason Guida wasn’t the only backstage altercation that happened at last Saturday night’s UFC 199 event at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
As UFC Bantamweight contender Cody Garbrandt expla…
https://youtu.be/lFSQsjPzWpo
Apparently Nate Diaz and Jason Guida wasn’t the only backstage altercation that happened at last Saturday night’s UFC 199 event at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
As UFC Bantamweight contender Cody Garbrandt explained during a recent edition of Team Alpha Male’s Stud Radio (watch above), he and reigning UFC Bantamweight Champion Dominick Cruz nearly got into it after he defeated Garbrandt’s teammate Urijah Faber in the co-main event.
“Yeah, [he, Cruz, popped out of the tent] with this dumbass look on his face,” Garbrandt said. “I was sitting there, walked out of Faber’s tent, talked to him, kind of taking it all in. He [Cruz] popped out of his tent and kind of made eye contact with me, made this face like, ‘Yeah, motherfuc*er, what?'”
Garbrandt continued, explaining just how close things got to getting physical.
“I was sitting there, and he [Cruz] wouldn’t turn away, so I was like ‘Alright, what’s up? It’s cool. Keep my belt polished up for me.’ And he grabbed his belt off his dude and put it over his shoulder like, ‘You better get in line.’
“I was like, ‘There ain’t no line right now. I’ll run up on you and smack you right in your face.'”
Apparently Garbrandt could handle all of that, however when the discussion turned to his body ink, things almost got more intense.
“And he started talking sh*t about tattoos, and that’s when I got kind of pissed off,” Garbrandt said. “He was saying some stupid, dorky-ass sh*t. He’s got that tribal tat, but he’s talking sh*t about tattoos. I was like, ‘That’s cool, man, what are we, teenagers?’
“So I was just like, ‘Fu*k it, man. I ain’t about talking. I’ll just run up and smack you. Fu*k the line. Wait in line? I’ll jump the line.’ Then his cornermen were right there, like, ‘Get the fu*k out of here,’ and I was like, ‘Fu*k this dude.’ He wants to look at me, grab his belt and turn toward me, yeah, keep it polished for me, because I’m coming, motherfu*ker. That was that.”
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Cody Garbrandt quotes.
After Clay Guida lost to Brian Ortega at UFC 199 last Saturday night at The Forum in Inglewood, California, a brawl broke out between UFC star Nate Diaz and Clay’s older brother, Jason Guida.
Regarding the wild incide…
https://youtu.be/lFSQsjPzWpo
After Clay Guida lost to Brian Ortega at UFC 199 last Saturday night at The Forum in Inglewood, California, a brawl broke out between UFC star Nate Diaz and Clay’s older brother, Jason Guida.
Regarding the wild incident involving Diaz and Guida backstage at the event, Team Alpha Male coach Justin Buchholz, who witnessed the brawl live, stated the following.
“It was the first time I cornered with Clay’s brother, Jason Guida. Like a 285 lbs huge f*cking dude,” said Buchholz. “After Clay got stopped, doctors were coming in and corners were being kept outside the cage and everything. I turn around and one of the UFC stools was just shattered in 6 pieces. Jason ripped it to shreds or slammed it, and his brother just got stopped, and was flying off the handle emotionally.”
“We were walking in the back after, and Clay was walking in front,” added Buchholz. “Nate was walking out of the bathroom, and Clay said something to him, but Clay was discombobulated at that time too. He just said something to Nate. He was all like, ‘Man, I’m gonna f*ck you up again’ or something like that.”
As Buchholz explained, Diaz began to talk back and the larger Guida took offense when he said, “What, motherf*cker? Are you joking?”
“Then Jason and Nate got into it. I don’t know what happened, but Jason bull rushes Nate and tries to put him up against the wall,” said Buchholz. “Nate has got him in a clinch. Like 50 people from the UFC come rushing into this thing. I’m standing in the middle like, ‘Nooooo!'”
“It was going down. Clay was grabbing Jason, a bunch of people grabbing Nate. They were trying to f*cking kill each other for a good 30 or 40 seconds,” added Buchholz. “They get broken up, and Clay’s got Jason, people got Nate. I’m looking at Nate, like ‘f*ck! We weren’t trying to fight. I didn’t know what happened.'”
H/T to BloodyElbow.com for transcribing the above Justin Buchholz quotes.
Another viable contender the champion mentioned is No. 3-ranked Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, who is coming hot off of a first round thrashing of Vitor Belfort at UFC 198 in May:
Later in the interview Helwani asked Bisping on his thoughts of a potential showdown against former 170-pound king Georges St-Pierre, an idea that seemed to intrigue the new champ:
