Dan Henderson wants ‘to go out on top’ as bookend to storied MMA career

Is retirement ever really final in mixed martial arts? Yes, there comes a time when every competitive athlete has to stop. The problem, however, is identifying whether the this time is one where they’re ready to hang up the gloves. With the opportunity for more money or attractive fights, it’s hard to tell when a fighter has truly committed themselves to post-fighting life.

For Dan Henderson, who reportedly faces UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping on October 8th in Manchester, England, he’s certain, win or lose, this is his last MMA fight. No, really.

“It all depended on what my options were afterwards as far as employment goes,” Henderson said on Monday’s The MMA Hour. “I was ready to kind of have that one be my last fight depending on, like I said, what options I’d have. For whatever reason, the stars aligned and the fans asked for one more fight, I guess.”

According to Henderson, he was ready to call it a career after stopping Hector Lombard at UFC 199 in June. Fighting was a possibility, but it was contingent on what was being offered. “Absolutely,” Henderson said of being ready to walk away from MMA after the Lombard win, “especially being able to go out with a win. Not necessarily on top, but with a win is always nice. To have an opportunity to actually go out on top would be much more desireable.”

Henderson said he walked into his last fight without a new offer on the table. Nothing, he noted, had been discussed with UFC management. First things first, Henderson said: finish the fight with Lombard and then see what’s available.

” [I] kinda wanted to finish my contract up and have a talk with Dana [White] about either representing [the UFC] in some capacity outside of the cage in working for the UFC,” he said. “That was what I was going to speak with them about, not necessarily fighting again.”

‘Hendo’ recalled the UFC made contact with him a couple of weeks later. Their offer? Rematch Bisping, who Henderson brutally knocked out at UFC 100 in July of 2009. “Why wouldn’t I do that instead?” he asked. “I’m ready to be done and done training and everything else and focus on family and other things a little bit more.”

As he told it, Henderson wasn’t altogether surprised by …

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