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Dan Henderson believes he should be retiring as UFC middleweight champion
Dan Henderson is steadfast in his decision to retire from mixed martial arts, but the 46-year-old legend believes he should be walking away with a UFC title wrapped around his waist.
Henderson came up just short in his bid to defeat middleweight champion Michael Bisping at UFC 204 on Saturday night, but he still has a had time buying the final result.
Late in the opening round, Henderson flattened Bisping with his signature right hand and nearly finished the fight before the horn sounded. Henderson dropped Bisping again in round two and then kept the fight close through the remaining 15 minutes.
When it was over, the judges all scored the fight in favor of Bisping, but Henderson clearly felt like he did enough over five rounds to deserve the win.
"The first round, it was almost finished real close and I thought that was obviously a 10-8 round but you never know. I thought I won the first two rounds. He won the third and fourth and I wanted to make sure I went out and won the fifth. I thought I did that," Henderson said at the UFC 204 post-fight press conference. "I went out and took him down, landed some decent shots on him. Honestly, I didn't feel hurt once in the whole fight with the exception of one leg kick that hurt my thigh a little, but that was about the only thing I felt in the fight. It was unfortunate. Obviously, by looking at him, he felt some of the shots that I hit him with.
"I'm just real frustrated. I'd have to go home and watch it again to be a little more educated talking to you guys about it, but that's what I was thinking. That's what was going through my head during the fight. I didn't want to end up with a draw, I wanted to make sure I won the fight and wanted to win that fifth round."
Taking a look at the final decision, none of the judges who were scoring the fight gave Henderson a 10-8 round in the first, despite the knockdown and the near finish.
When it was over, Henderson was handed a loss in what will serve as the final fight of his career and while it was a tough pill to swallow, he's still resigned in retirement.
"Not quite. I think I'm still frustrated with the fight itself but I think it's more frustrating knowing that was the last time and I won't be able to make up for that loss," Henderson said. "I knew it was a possibility of losing in any fight, but it's just more frustrating when you feel like you did enough out there to win and it didn't go your way and then that was the last one. I'll be able to live with it."
Even before he stepped into the Octagon on Saturday night, Henderson was more than happy with all of the accomplishments he racked up during his nearly 20 year career spent in MMA.
Finishing it all with a championship victory would have been nice, but Henderson can't change the result now that the fight is over.
"I feel like before this fight I accomplished enough in the sport and was satisfied with that. But obviously there's one more thing I wanted to do and really worked my ass off during training camp and thought I was ready to get it done," Henderson said.
As far as what comes next, Henderson has long hoped to continue working for the UFC in some kind of ambassador role similar to the work that other fighters like Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes have done after retirement. He also joked that he'll probably spend most of his time as a personal Uber driver for his kids.
Henderson retires with a 32-15 record overall and a resume that will go toe-to-toe with any iconic fighter in the history of the sport. Henderson certainly wishes he closed out his career with win No. 33, but it wasn't meant to be.
"Unfortunately, that was the last one. It will have to be an 'L' on my record but I left it all in there and I felt like I did everything I needed to do to win that fight," Henderson said.
"Unfortunately, everybody didn't see it that way."
