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Morning Report: Win or lose, Dan Henderson says he will retire after his fight with Michael Bisping, warns him to be careful what he wishes for
- Updated: July 25, 2016
This is the last ride for a true legend of MMA.
On the weekend of UFC 200 Dana White confirmed the heavily rumored fight of Michael Bisping defending his middleweight championship against Dan Henderson in a rematch from their famous fight at UFC 100. Many suspected that should the fight take place, it would be the last stand of the former two division Pride champion who turns 46 in August. Yesterday in an interview with Severe MMA’s Niall McGrath and Petesy Carroll on the Talking Brawls podcast, Henderson confirmed that, win or lose, this would indeed be his final MMA bout.
“That is my plan, win or lose I’m ready mentally to retire. My body could still probably go another two, three years but I’ve put it through enough. I’m ready to take it a little bit easier, but still be involved in mixed martial arts doing something a little bit different than fighting.”
Henderson has been fighting in MMA since 1997 and is one of the most accomplished fighters the sport has ever seen. He won the Pride middleweight and welterweight championships, he was the last ever Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, and even won a UFC middleweight tournament back at UFC 17. Before that he was an accomplished Greco Roman wrestler, representing the United States at the Olympics twice, first in 1992 and then again in 1996. He almost qualified again in 2000 but was beaten in the finals of the trials by Matt Lindland who went on to win a silver medal. All told, Henderson has spent the last 25 years in gruelingly intense sports and now he says it is time to hang it up and be with his family.
“That’s a big part of it. It’s all they’ve ever known, I’ve been fighting for so long, before my kids were born. So they’ve sacrificed things as well…it’ll be nice to be able to plan vacations further in advance from now on and spend more times with my kids and not having to be too tired and having to conserve my energy to go out and do things with them because I’m training.”
Henderson’s intent to retire also played a role in the creation of this fight; he’s a fan favorite and a groundswell of support came from the community to get Henderson one last crack at UFC gold before he walks off into the sunset, aided by the champion Michael Bisping’s desire to avenge his earlier loss to Henderson. Last week, Bisping told Luke Thomas that he wants to “pay him back” for the loss, which is something Henderson says can’t happen.
“I’m sure the he wants that one back but that one he’ll never get back. I think that one is instilled in the history books with some of the more favorite knockouts out there, but I’m hoping to add one more to it…I plan on doing everything in my power to beat his ass again.”
The fight is expected to be officially announced sometime this week with the general belief that it will be the headliner for UFC 204 sometime in October or November in Manchester, England. It will be Bisping’s eighth UFC fight in England, a place where he has never lost and the promise of his first title defense being on his home soil and giving him an opportunity to retire a fighting legend while avenging his most devastating defeat has gotten Bisping talking copious amounts of trash already, something Henderson warned him about before declining to banter back at the champ.
“There’s that saying, be careful what you ask for, you might just get it. And this might be that thing with him…I don’t need to say anything to him. He’ll feel it later.”
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