UFC legend Dan Henderson was 46 years old when he officially hung up his gloves and walked away from the sport.
Former UFC star Dan Henderson is widely regarded as one of the most underappreciated fighters in UFC history, having put on some spectacular showings throughout his career, but having never won a UFC title.
‘Hendo’ beat some of the best fighters of his era including Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Shogun Rua and others, but it was his rivalry with Michael Bisping that was arguably the most memorable.
The two first met inside the Octagon back in 2009 at UFC 100, and Henderson scored a thunderous knockout over the Brit, winning knockout of the night.
Dan Henderson reveals why he retired following rematch against Bisping
Following his win over Bisping, Henderson returned to Strikeforce in 2010, where he scored a wildly surprising knockout over Fedor Emelianenko, before returning to the UFC in 2011.
His third stint in the promotion didn’t go as well as expected, as after 10 fights, he’d only picked up four wins and was finished four times, losing two split decisions.
Despite that, in 2016 coming off the back of an impressive win over Hector Lombard, Henderson received a middleweight title fight against his former foe, Bisping.
The fight was quite controversial in many ways as a large majority of the fanbase believed ‘Hendo’ didn’t deserve the title shot considering his run at that point, however, he put on a show.
To this day, many fans believe Henderson won the fight, but because it was in Bisping’s hometown, he wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt and still wasn’t able to claim UFC gold.
That marked Henderson’s final fight in the promotion and he retired shortly after at 46 years old. However, speaking recently to current UFC star Paddy Pimblett, the UFC legend has admitted that it wasn’t exactly because of his age that he retired.
When Henderson first started out his professional career, he was fighting in Pride, which adopted two 10 minute rounds. ‘Hendo’ has revealed that after switching to the more regular format of five, five minute rounds for title fights, his body just couldn’t recover properly.
“It was definitely something you had to get used to, I didn’t have to be in better shape, you just had to pace yourself a little differently knowing you had to keep going. When I was doing the five fives I was a lot older so that’s the reason I retired, I just wasn’t recovering enough, the five fives got tougher,” Henderson told Paddy Pimblett.
Henderson went on to grapple Jon Jones following UFC retirement
The UFC Hall of Famer went on to admit that he wishes the UFC had adopted the damage first scoring when he fought Bisping as he was sure he would’ve won.
Despite retiring from the UFC, Henderson went on to take on Jon Jones in a grappling competition just a few months after, losing in the first round via a triangle choke.