Dan Henderson
[autotag]Dan Henderson[/autotag] has won numerous titles in major organizations. The former PRIDE welterweight and middleweight champion and former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion has competed against the sport’s best.
Famous for his big overhand right, the “Hendo Bomb,” Henderson has dispatched the likes of Renzo Gracie, Wanderlei Silva, Michael Bisping, Fedor Emelianenko and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua – and the list goes on.
After winning the PRIDE middleweight title, it marked an end of an era. Henderson made his UFC debut in 2007 and challenged then-light heavyweight champ Quinton Jackson in a title unification bout. He fell short, but got a shot at a different champion right after: then-middleweight champion Anderson Silva. But Henderson fell short once again.
He then notched three straight wins, including one of the most recognized knockouts in UFC history, a massive overhand right that put Michael Bisping out cold at UFC 100. Then Henderson made the move to Strikeforce, where he captured the promotion’s 205-pound title with a finish of Rafael Cavalcante. Henderson then picked up another notable win, taking out Emelianenko in the first round at heavyweight.
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Henderson returned to the UFC in 2011 and took on former 205-pound champ Rua in an instant classic in which he outlasted “Shogun” in a five-round war.
He dropped his next three, and eventually made the move down to middleweight. In the final fight of his career, Henderson rematched Bisping at UFC 204 for the middleweight title, but was edged out on the judges’ scorecards in a fight in which he dropped and badly hurt Bisping on numerous occasions. It would have been a fairy tale ending for Henderson, but even without a title he is a UFC Hall of Famer, nonetheless.
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