Pride 25 Body Blow
March 16, 2003
Yokohama, Japan at Yokohama Arena
Dan "Hollywood" Henderson vs. Shungo Oyama
Henderson came into this fight looking to get back into the win column after suffering two consecutive losses for the first time in his career. He had already established himself as one of the best middleweight fighters in Pride, but a split decision loss to fast rising middleweight contender, Ricardo Arona derailed Dan's previous three fight winning streak. Up next for Dan was a rematch with Pride heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, whom Dan already had a win over dating back to the Rings King of Kings 1999 tournament that Henderson won. In a hard fought scrap, Henderson ended up getting submitted via armbar in the third round but gave Nogueira one of his toughest fights at that time in Pride. Henderson needed a win here and was looking to get back to his winning ways.
Oyama came into this fight with only two wins to his credit against four losses on his record. He was inconsistent so far up to this point, but he did hold a decision win over Renzo Gracie dating back to Pride 21. His next fight was a loss to Renzo's brother, the late Ryan Gracie and Oyama was looking to obtain another big win in Pride. Nobody gave Oyama much of a chance against Henderson and his punching power, but Shungo came in confident and content with his abilities. The fight ended up exceeding all expectations and gave Pride fans a scrap to remember for a while.
THE FIGHT
Round 1: Henderson comes out and lends an outside leg kick followed by a huge right hook that sends Oyama stumbling backwards. Dan comes charging in and lands two more right hands, the second of which drops Oyama. Shungo is somehow able to back back to his feet and find some room to get his bearings. Dan pursues and locks in a single collar tie before both men proceed to land a few punches to the face of their opponent. Oyama raises his hands as if to say “I'm not done yet!” Henderson just smiles at Oyama and extends his hand as a sign of respect. Both men touch gloves and engage again. Henderson lands another hard outside leg kick followed by a right cross that misses its mark. Oyama backs away before stepping in and landing a nice left right combination flush to the face of Henderson. Dan wisely backs away before stepping right back in and initiating a clinch, which is one of Dan's specialties. Oyama surprisingly performs a nice judo throw and ends up in Dan's half guard. Handerson gets to his feet but eats a hard knee to the jaw for his effort that seemed to stun him momentarily. Nice action here. Henderson gets a standing clinch again and earns a takedown which lands him in side control. Henderson lands a few elbows to the midsection of Oyama before Shungo works out of it and gets back to his feet. Both men separate briefly before Dan lands another hard outside leg kick, which sets up a beautiful right hand lead that lands perfectly on the jaw of Shungo, followed by a devastating takedown slam. Dan works from side control again but this time he drops eight consecutive bombs to the face of Oyama as the referee steps in to call the fight. This was an excellent scrap as Oyama proved to be very durable.
THE AFTERMATH
Dan "Hollywood" Henderson: After this fight, Henderson would go on a three fight win streak before getting submitted by Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in the Pride 2005 middleweight grand prix tournament. After this loss, Henderson would go on to compete in and win the Pride Welterweight Grand Prix tournament. He would suffer a decision loss to the man he beat four moths earlier, Kazuo Misaki, at Pride 12. This was a shocking defeat, because it occurred in the next welterweight grand prix tournament of which Dan was a favorite to win. The loss did not faze Henderson though, as he would then fight Vitor Belfort and win en route to scoring the biggest win of his career against Wanderlei Silva for the Pride middleweight title. Henderson had a somewhat disappointing 2008, as he lost both his Pride middleweight and welterweight titles to Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva respectively in unification fights. He would finish out the year with a nice performance and first win of 2008 over Rousimar Palhares. He began 2009 with a disputed win over Rich Franklin and an incredible knockout victory over Michael Bisping at UFC 100. What's next for Henderson is anyone's guess as the word is he has not yet signed a new contract with the UFC.
Dan Henderson is one of the greats of this sport. He has done it all in MMA except win a UFC championship belt. He has however, won a UFC championship medal way back at UFC 17. With the exception of a loss at Pride Bushido 12 back in 2006, he has only lost to some truly elite fighters in MMA. To firmly grasp how successful Henderson has been in MMA, lets run down a list of his accomplishments: UFC 17 tournament champion, 1999 Rings King of Kings tournament champion, Pride welterweight champion, Pride welterweight tournament champion, Pride middleweight champion. He is the only man to ever hold two different championships in two different weight classes simultaneously. Without a doubt, Henderson is indeed, a great warrior and champion. He is a great wrestler and trained with Randy Couture for years in team quest. It is nice to see him finally becoming famous stateside and I must say that I cannot believe he is not signed by the UFC currently.
Shungo Oyama: As with most of the Japanese fighters in Pride, Oyama was more famous in Japan than anywhere else. He trained with Hidehiko Yoshida and was considered a fairly good striker. This fight earned him another appearance in Pride at Bushido 4, but he would lose badly to a hungry Mirko Cro Cop. Next up for Shungo was K-1 hero's and a series of fairly big wins as he managed to beat K-1 kickboxing legend Peter Aerts, Rodrigo Gracie, and Carlos Newton. He suffered two brutal losses to Melvin Manhoef while in Hero's and has been competing in Dream his last two fights. Most recently, he suffered a loss to Andrews Nakahara at Dream 8 in April of this year. He is a fun fighter to watch depending on his opponent, but will probably never win a major championship.
[Dan Henderson art credit Cory Gould (c) MMATorch]
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