Amadi's Take
AMADI: With win over Fedor, Dan Henderson proved himself yet again to be among best "Old Man" fighters in combat sports
Aug 1, 2011 - 10:45:07 PM AMADI: With win over Fedor, Dan Henderson proved himself yet again to be among best "Old Man" fighters in combat sports

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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

Back in May of this year, Bloody Elbow's Brent Brookehouse put out a piece entitled "Bernard Hopkins, Not Randy Couture, Is Best 'Old Man' in Combat Sports History." The piece was written shortly after Hopkins became the oldest man to win a major boxing world championship by defeating a game, 28 year old Jean Pascal.

When I first read this piece, I took issue with the idea that Hopkins was combat sports' greatest "old man" on the grounds that it was an unjust comparison. After all, Bernard Hopkins began his boxing career at 23 years old and by the time he actually bested Pascal, Hopkins had over two decades of high level boxing experience under his belt. Initially, I thought that no mixed martial artist alive has anywhere near that kind of experience competing at the highest level, considering that when MMA really got going in the late 90's, high level fighters were still completely one dimensional, and that by now most have already tarnished whatever reputation they'd built for themselves by competing against today's athletes.

However, after watching Dan Henderson - a man who might be MMA's answer to John Wayne - dispatch the once unstoppable Fedor Emelianenko last Saturday night, it's hard to imagine how any other aging mixed martial artist could ever be MMA's representative in any sort of historical "greatest old men in combat sports" type list.

While some fighters simply dare to be great, the man affectionately known as "Hendo" has proven quite successful at it. In his first nine fights, Henderson won the Brazilian Open 1997 Lightweight Tournament, the UFC 17 Middleweight Tournament, and the Rings King of Kings tournament, all in succession.

Henderson, a man whose frame is best suited for competing at 185 pounds, holds victories over the two most accomplished heavyweights ever in Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Fedor Emelianenko. While Anderson Silva is far and away the greatest 185 pound fighter we've seen to this point, Henderson is right behind him. He's held gold in that weight class, and captured two different championships a weight class above.

In the interest of full disclose, Dan Henderson has never successfully defended a championship in his career. However, at the same time, he's also never lost to a man who wasn't himself some sort of champion at least once in his career.

Henderson's career, while littered with championships, isn't really defined by any of them. Instead, one could argue that the body of work of Dan Henderson is defined by challenge. Now with a knockout victory over Fedor Emelianenko under his belt, it's hard to imagine any challenge (a title defense wouldn't hurt) that could really put Dan Henderson any more in league with a fighter like Bernard Hopkins, outside of miraculously crossing over into boxing and knocking him out as well.

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