This article has been submitted by MMA fighter Kyle Norton.
This Saturday, Dan Henderson will get a second chance to become a UFC champion and unify his Pride FC belt but this time around it will be in the Middleweight division. No other fight on this card needs any hype to sell this event because Silva-Henderson is a massive match for both hardcore and casual MMA fans. UFC brass (Dana White) are touting Anderson Silva as the pound for pound (P4P) best fighter in the world and while an argument could certainly be made there, he is yet to fight the best in the world. Enter Dan Henderson, who many consider exactly that – the best middleweight fighter in the world. Silva has beaten some tough opponents in his career but the only top 10 fighters he has faced are Nate Marquardt and Rich Franklin. This fight will go a very long way in cementing Anderson Silva as the world’s best middleweight and potentially the P4P champ as well.
Without a doubt, this is the most frightening man who has ever worked at McDonald’s. Since coming to the UFC, Anderson “The Spider” Silva has absolutely demolished everyone put across the Octagon from him. He has knocked out iron-jawed Chris Leben, submitted BJJ Black Belt Travis Lutter, buzz-sawed through former King of Pancrase Nate Marquardt and laid two embarrassing hurtings on Rich Franklin. In the past five years, Silva’s only losses have been a disqualification loss to Yushin Okami (for knocking him out with a vicious up-kick from his back) and a stunning flying scissor heel hook submission loss to Ryo Chonan with less than two minutes remaining in a fight that he had dominated start to finish. Needles to say, Silva is a frightening man to step in the cage with due to his surgical precision striking and dangerous jiu-jitsu skills. The ex-Chute Boxe fighter now trains with Black House with the Nogueira brothers, Lyoto Machida and Vitor Belfort (the old one that KO’d Wanderlei Silva, not that new guy who shares the same name and lost to Alistair Overeem…twice…seriously).
Across the cage from Silva will be the ever-fearless Dan “Hollywood” Henderson. Even though he has one of the cheesiest and least fitting names in all of MMA other than Tamdan “The Barn Cat” McCrory, he can indeed fight. Since he first appeared in the UFC ten years ago, Henderson has only fought top competition such as current UFC heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira, Wanderlei Silva, Renzo Gracie, Murilo Bustamante, Quinton Jackson and Ricardo Arona. Hendo is a true middleweight but he has taken fights all the way up to heavyweight. His last two fights came at light-heavyweight but Henderson has stated the cut will be no problem. “Hollywood” is an internationally decorated wrestler, competing in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. In addition to Henderson’s effective Greco-Roman style wrestling, he is freakishly strong and has an extremely powerful right hand. Hendo is relatively wild on his feet but packs a ton of power in his punches.
This is a very difficult fight to predict because the two fighters could reasonably take a number of game plans. Henderson has shown that he will stand up with anyone in the world (see: Wanderlei Silva KO) but he could also want to take “the Spider” down and test his ground skills. Whatever strategy the fighters pursue, the clinch should be a huge factor in this fight. Henderson’s Greco-Roman clinch skills are on par with Randy Couture but Silva has punished every one of his opponents in the clinch so far. One of the big questions going into this fight will be if Henderson can connect on Silva. He has knockout power in both hands but is quite the opposite of Silva’s technical and precise striking, preferring to take the ‘Bull in a China Shop” route.
The fight goes down as part of UFC 82 tonight in Ohio, starting up on pay per view at 10pm.
The rest of the card is as follows (from MMAWeekly.com):
Cheick Kongo (#10 Heavyweight in the World) vs. Heath Herring
Jon Fitch (#4 Welterweight in the World) vs. Chris Wilson
Yushin Okami (#9 Middleweight in the World) vs. Evan Tanner
Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara
Undercard Bouts:
Andrei Arlovski (#5 Heavyweight in the World) vs. Jake O’Brien
Josh Koscheck (#5 Welterweight in the World) vs. Dustin Hazelett
Diego Sanchez (#8 Welterweight in the World) vs. David Bielkheden
Luke Cummo vs. Luigi Fioravanti
Jorge Gurgel vs. John Halverson
This article has been submitted my MMA fighter Kyle Norton.
Goddaaaaaaam what a fight!