Take a look at Dan Henderson. He’s just about 45 years old, and these days you can really tell. It’s not just in the former Olympians face, though his once cherubic visage has finally begun to crumble into a mass of winkles and scar tissue as all fighting faces must. It’s in his posture, too. The familiar crouch, right hand cocked and loaded, looks less like a frightening affectation and more like a stoop with every fight. It’s in the movements too. The man fight fans fondly call “Hendo” is not only slowfooted now but badly balanced as well.
But God damn can Dan Henderson punch.
It’s been the punch more than anything that has kept Henderson in the game in recent years. In the last two years in particular–perhaps thanks to the banning of the testosterone replacement therapy of which Henderson was a known recipient–even the old power hasn’t been enough to cover up the growing cracks, most notably those in Henderson’s legendary chin.
But last Saturday, Hendo did it again. He was matched against Tim Boetsch, a man most everyone in the know (including myself) expecting to knock the old man senseless. Boetsch is a durable fighter, and certainly not featherfisted himself. He’s been outboxed and outwrestled, but few have successfully outpunched him, and a strong showing against the surging Thales Leites in his last fight seemed to imply that Boetsch would be a tough out for Henderson. Perhaps we overestimated Tim Boetsch, or underestimated Henderson’s power. Whatever the reason, we were wrong. Henderson landed “the H-Bomb” on Boetsch’s chin, and that was that. It took him 28 seconds.
It was a bittersweet moment. I’m not so proud as to deny that I was wrong in my prediction of the bout–I absolutely was. But neither am I so naive as to think that “Henderson is back!” simply because he hasn’t yet forgotten how to crack. If anything, the victory encouraged me to look back at Dan Henderson’s storied career, and what I found almost surprised me. Because when you look at Dan Henderson now, it’s too easy to forget that he was once very, very good at mixed martial arts.
END OF AN ERA
Officially, Pride 34 was the last show from Japan’s premier MMA organization, Pride FC. But it’s the event just before it, Pride 33, that stands out in the mind’s eye. Pride 33 had plenty of memorable moments: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou overcame 16-1 odds to knock out Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in his Pride debut; Mauricio “Shogun” Rua capped off one of the best runs in MMA history by diving fist-first into Alistair Overeem’s chin; Nick Diaz absorbed the best shots of Takanori Gomi and came back with dozens of his own before submitting the exhausted Gomi with the rarely seen gogoplata in the second round.
But at the top of it all, there was Dan Henderson.
If you first met him as Hendo, the humble middle-aged man with the heavy right hand, it might surprise you to learn that, in the Pride era, Henderson went by the nickname “Hollywood.” Fans, however, called him “Decision Dan,” and his record at the time should tell you why: only 11 of Dan’s 22 wins had come by way of decision, but the judges always seemed to be called upon in his most high-profile fights. What’s more, their results were often controversial–even inexplicable. Seven of those were either split or majority decisions.
A far cry from the man he would soon become, the Henderson of 2007 was known neither for excitement, nor for emphatic wins. Such could not be said about the man he was scheduled to face.
Middleweight (205 lbs) champ Wanderlei Silva embodied everything that fans loved about Pride FC, and some of the things they didn’t. Of the 33 men he had beaten up to that point, Silva had stopped 24. That record was helped along up to a point by Pride’s infamous matchmaking–no one was surprised to learn that Silva could knock out Kazushi Sakuraba the third time it happened–but Silva also deserved credit for a style of fighting that left him almost as open to punishment as his opponents. “The Axe Murderer” was guaranteed thrill, and Dan Henderson was, at best, likely tedium.
Who would have thought that it would turn out to be an all-time classic, and quite possibly the best performance of Dan Henderson’s career?
THE FUTURE, A LITTLE LATE
On February 24th, 2007, Henderson was already on the wrong side of his 36th year, but he was fighting as if he were in the prime of his life. And though it was almost a decade ago, his performance against Silva presaged many of the tactics common at the highest levels of MMA today. Dan’s ground n’ pound would not be out of place in the arsenal of any UFC fighter today. Always happy to drag an opponent to the canvas, Henderson’s earlier performances had often been marked by long stretches of inactivity once he wound up on top. Against Silva, Henderson finally seemed determined not only to stay busy on top, but to make his punches count as well.
1. Henderson, on one knee, grabs the biceps of Wanderlei Silva and uses it as a post to stand up.
2. Now on both feet, he finds his right wrist controlled by Silva.
3. With his biceps control still pinning Silva’s shoulder to the ground, he rips his right hand back to free it . . .
4. . . . and sends a straight right hand crashing into Silva’s temple.
5. A left hand to the body follows up.
6. Now Henderson has Silva in a not-quite-stacked guard.
7. He loads up on another right, only for Silva to employ a cross-armed block in defense.
8. Henderson brings the right down anyway, but instead of punching he grabs Silva’s wrists.
9. Driving his bodyweight downward, he fully stacks Silva’s guard and pins his wrists to the canvas.
10. And then surprises Silva a little bit by attacking with a short straight left.
Henderson’s ground and pound would go on to have more terrific results–as against Renato Sobral some four years later–but it was a far cry from the pitter-patter usually expected from him. Using his positioning to his advantage, Henderson drove gravity-assisted punches into the face of Silva for an entire five-minute round, mixing his assaults with deft grips and control to devastating effect.
But Henderson was at his most dangerous on the feet, where he was finding a new knack for the crushing collisions for which he is now known. In an era of wild kickboxers and stock wrestle-boxers, Henderson was well ahead of his time, comfortable in the mid-range that few other fighters trod, and devilishly dangerous in the spaces between traditional techniques.
1. Henderson and Silva stand in center ring.
2. Charging forward, Hendo shoots for what Josh Barnett in the booth calls a “Greco-Roman double leg,” which Wanderlei uses underhooks to thwart.
3. Undeterred, Henderson snatches the back of Silva’s head with his left hand . . .
4. . . . and holds him in place for a whipping uppercut to the chin.
5. A missed left hook follows . . .
6. . . . but the short right after that connects.
7. And as Wanderlei covers up against the ropes. Henderson exits the pocket on an angle, using a left hook to cover his retreat.
A few months ago I wrote about the new wrestle-boxing style of former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks. Now I’d like to correct myself. Hendricks’ clinch-heavy style may stand out relative to his peers, but it’s certainly not new, because Dan Henderson was doing it nearly a decade ago.
Much like the late, great Gene Fullmer, Henderson has always been a “crude” boxer, but the apparent wildness of his technique tends to mask the craft with which he employs it. At his best, he made up for a lack of speed by securing quick grips on his opponents before unloading with his free hand. He was never a standout takedown artist, but he would use every failed attempt to create some offensive opportunity. And though his form was imperfect, his punches were almost always well-timed, and well-placed.
Of course, the first thing that stands out about this fight is Hendo’s left hook. Best known for his thunderous right, Henderson’s hook was always ready, a terrible reminder of the surprising complexity of his style. Opponents would spend so much energy trying to avoid the right that they were left completely susceptible to the hook that came behind it. Such was certainly the case with Wanderlei.
Take a look at the finish–one of the most vicious entries in a highlight reel marked by its sheer brutality.
1. Henderson sticks out his jab and eats a counter jab from Silva.
2. Resetting, Henderson drops his weight and watches for Silva to counter jab again.
3. When he does, Hendo sits down on a perfect short right hand to the jaw.
4. And follows with a missed left hook.
5. Realizing that Silva is hurt, Henderson leads again with the jab, and once again takes a counter left to the mug.
6. He and Silva trade missed right hands, but Silva has put himself out of position, while Henderson is still balanced and ready to unleash . . .
7. . . . one of the best left hooks in the history of MMA.
And that was it–almost. After dropping Wanderlei to the canvas, Henderson followed up with a flying forearm to the prone man’s jaw, a mirror-image of the same finisher he would apply to Michael Bisping three and a half years later–just before his 39th birthday, in fact.
There are still ghosts of these tactics in Dan Henderson’s fights today. The bull-strong infighter showed himself for a brief instant in a rematch against Mauricio Rua last year, and even that one moment of brilliance was enough to end the fight. The short, accurate counter punches and vicious ground striking were on full display against Tim Boetsch on Saturday.
These shouldn’t serve as reasons to hope for the future. Dan Henderson is no longer a top fighter, and there’s no changing that. Even five years ago Henderson was talking in post fight interviews about proving that he wasn’t done yet. At some point, no matter how hard he wishes otherwise–no matter how hard we wish otherwise–the man will have to hang them up for good. But moments like the Boetsch KO are nice reminders that, at one time, Dan Henderson was among the very best in the world, and that he will always be one of the best of all time.
For more on UFC New Orleans and the upcoming heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum (also a veteran of Pride), check out this week’s episode of Heavy Hands, the only podcast dedicated to the finer points of face-punching.