Rich Hansen's Take
HANSEN: UFC 139's Dan Henderson vs. "Shogun" Rua bout a reminder of why I love MMA
Nov 20, 2011 - 9:00:47 AM HANSEN: UFC 139's Dan Henderson vs. "Shogun" Rua bout a reminder of why I love MMA

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By: Rich Hansen, MMATorch Columnist

Jamie Penick just asked me to grade the event. I can't, I just can't do it. If I were to give the Henderson versus Shogun fight an A, then I would never again be able to give another fight an A grade. Or a B, for that matter. This fight was so special that it would forever ruin the curve if I were to grade it.

I don't want to make this about me, but I kind of have to, because I don't know how else to make the point that's still forming itself in my head. So bear with me here. When I watch the fights, I detach myself and watch as a writer. I rarely get emotionally invested in the fights, because I want to be able to be as honest as possible when I write or talk about any of the fights I cover. Other than B.J. Penn and Alistair Overeem, it's easy for me to do this. And lately I've noticed that I'm enjoying MMA a little bit less. I've spent almost two months asking myself why my passion for the sport has been receding, albeit slowly. Before I joined MMA Torch, I would yell and scream and make a ruckus during damn near every fight. That type of reaction pretty much went the way of the dodo.

Until tonight's main event, that is.

In the middle of the fourth round I noticed that I hadn't typed one note since the middle of round one. I went three rounds without typing a thing. I was sitting in my chair (and jumping in the air like a jack-in-the-box after 15 lattes) and just watching. Like I used to back in the day. Like the fan I remember once being. Had the fight ended in the middle of the fourth, I would have been grateful forever to Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua for rekindling my love of the sport.

And then we get to round number five. If one were to sit down at the beginning of round five and not know who Henderson and Shogun were, they'd watch the round with no context and think it was the most pointless thing they'd ever watched; even more pointless than the first 45 minutes of an NBA game. But knowing the amount both men had dished out, and suffered; knowing that Henderson almost finished the fight on so many occasions (see, this is why I take notes during fights. So that I can immediately look up answers to questions like, "How many times did Henderson almost finish the fight? But I stopped taking notes, so now I don't know the answer to the question I'm trying to pose); knowing that Shogun was doing everything he could to finish the fight; knowing that Henderson was trying to hang on for dear life. This was Santiago-Misaki 2, times 42,000,000.

I needed a reminder of why I love the sport. Thanks to Dan Henderson and Mauricio Rua, I'll never forget why.