Dan Henderson is a former Strikeforce and Pride champion who has over 30 career wins to his credit.
None, though, would be bigger than a victory this fall when he meets Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight title.
As part of his quest to become champion again, Henderson is offering up his thoughts in blog entries for the website Champions.co. His latest details how he continues to push forward as he approaches 50 years old.
“Some might think that I’ve lost my edge, but that’s not really the case. I feel like I’ve had a run of bad luck due to a couple factors. Fights got stopped a little sooner than I would have normally expected, leaving some serious scars on my record. I’ve been in some wars where I’ve been hurt and they let the fight continue, which resulted in me coming back to win. I feel like I wasn’t given those opportunities in some of my later fights, for whatever reason. Maybe it was the referees trying to protect the old man,” Henderson wrote. “That bad luck didn’t stop at the referees, either. The judging saw me with a couple real close decisions that didn’t go my way and between them, it added up to some losses over the last few years that might have made me look like I was in a slump. I know deep down that I’m still there and still able to beat the top guys. On any given night, anything can happen, and on any given night, I can beat anybody in the world.”
Henderson also recalled being forced out of a planned UFC light heavyweight title fight with then-champion Jon Jones due to a knee injury suffered in training. Despite working his way up to the No. 1 contender spot, Henderson never did get his shot at that belt.
“Now, I train smarter, because 45-year-old me can’t take the same chances as 25-year-old me. I make sure that my conditioning is on point, because with my experience in the sport, the most important thing I need to focus on is my conditioning. As I’ve gotten older, it’s been one of the tougher things to keep where it needs to be,” he said. “I try to conserve as much energy as I can. I don’t do as much drilling as I used to and I take better care of myself during sparring. Overall, I’d say I just manage my training more efficiently.”
