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Dan Henderson will forever go down as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time, and his induction into the UFC Hall of Fame is moments away. Henderson is by no means in the title picture mix as he is 3-5 in his last 8 UFC fights, but the man they call “Hendo” is still exciting to watch. When he knocked out Fedor Emelianenko in 2011, his return to the UFC was certain, and while his latest stint with the organization has not seen Henderson rise through the ranks to win the title he has forever dreamed of, we are definitely not disappointed.
His three wins since returning to the UFC have all been nothing short of spectacular. His Round 5 Unanimous Decision victory of Mauricio Rua can be considered one of the greatest fights of all time, and the other two wins were violent knockouts against a rematch with Rua in March of 2014, with the latter coming against Tim Boetsch at UFC Fight Night on June 6th. We all need to realize that Henderson’s career is coming to a close. He has openly stated he wants to continue to fight, but you never know what a loss can do. Aside from his 1st Round KO loss against Gegard Mousasi, Henderson has proven that at the age of 44 he still has a durable chin. The only question is should Henderson continue to show that durability at this stage in his career.
As MMA and UFC fans we all wish that Henderson’s career would last forever, in a perfect world Henderson would fight at every UFC event. As MMA fans though, we have to come back to reality and realize that this illustrious career will be winding down very soon. The sooner we realize that the sooner we will actually get over Henderson’s retirement when it does come. It is hard to think about who will realize it first: Dan Henderson, or the MMA community. President of the UFC Dana White has publicly stated he would like to see some fighters stop fighting, and we will see when those comments will be said about Dan Henderson. The image of Dan Henderson knocking out Michael Bisping will forever be wired into our brains, and I wish Dan Henderson a great ending to his storybook career. And when the time comes for Dan Henderson to leave his gloves in the Octagon, we will always miss the famous “H-Bomb”.