Dan Henderson has no plans of retirement yet, plans to honor final fights on UFC contract

Being a professional fighter for almost 20 years, Dan Henderson has seen plenty of ups and downs during a career that started with the UFC all the way back in 1998.

Henderson has felt the highest highs over the course of his tenure in MMA, with wins over legendary heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, his jaw-dropping knockout over Michael Bisping at UFC 100 and a pair of epic matches with Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua.  He's also experienced the lowest of lows and some would argue Henderson is currently mired in the toughest run of his iconic career right now.

Henderson has lost five out of his last six fights, albeit against a who's who of top fighters in the sport, but as time passes and memories fade his record just looks littered with defeats over the course of the past two years.

At 44 years of age, Henderson isn't oblivious to the fact that his career has far less time in front of him than what's already behind, but as he approaches his main event bout against Tim Boetsch this weekend in New Orleans he's not thinking in terms that this fight is a must win for him.

Henderson has no intentions of walking away from the sport whether he wins or loses on Saturday night. He's still got some fight left in him and Henderson plans on seeing that through to the very end.

"It is just another fight, but at the same time I put pressure on myself to win every fight, probably a little more coming off a couple of losses for sure. I never tell myself if I lose I'm done. I'm going to definitely finish out my contract and see where things go after that. My body feels great so I'm going to keep going," Henderson told FOX Sports on Wednesday.

"I've got this fight and two more on my contract so I'll be here at least another year."

Following his last fight against Gegard Mousasi in January, Henderson can't deny that he started to get a little frustrated by his current run, but it was mostly predicated on the way that bout ended.  He believes an inexperienced referee made a rookie mistake and it cost him the chance to fight back after getting tagged with a few hard shots early in the fight.

"It's frustrating. It wasn't necessarily the eye cut when you have a referee in there that's that inexperienced or green that stops a fight the way he did, it just frustrating," Henderson said. "That helps motivate me for this fight for sure."

There's something to be said for Henderson's recent run of fights where he's taken on 11 consecutive champions or former champions from the UFC, Strikeforce or PRIDE Fighting Championships.

Then again, Henderson knows losing his last two fights is bad enough but dropping a third in a row is just unacceptable.

"I don't put that kind of pressure on myself. It sucks to lose either way and I've lost twice in a row so I'm ready for a win right now," Henderson said. "I feel great and capable of doing that."

The streak of championship level opposition will come to an end this weekend when he faces Boetsch in a five round fight in the middleweight division. While the Maine native and MMA veteran has faced a laundry list of top fighters over the years, Boetsch has never personally come close to a title fight or title contention in the UFC.

Regardless, Henderson knows Boetsch is a very dangerous opponent and he can't be underestimated.

"I think there's a fine line between guys that are on that (championship) level and guys that are capable of beating guys that are on that level. He's one of those guys that hasn't been overly consistent and hasn't beaten the top guys, but he's definitely capable," Henderson said. "He's beaten some pretty good guys out there and given other guys a pretty tough time.

"He's a guy I'm definitely not taking lightly. He's dangerous with his power and capable of putting me on my back. So I have to be really careful out there with that."

The main component for Henderson going into any fight is having a full training camp to prepare while giving his body ample down time to recover from the last fight. Considering he barely broke a sweat in the bout with Mousasi, health wasn't a concern.

Henderson admits moving from a three round to a five round fight after the original main event between Daniel Cormier and Ryan Bader got scrapped wasn't optimal, but he's been around the block enough times to know he's ready for whatever.

"I'm ready for five rounds with him," Henderson said. "Obviously an extra two rounds changed things. Probably puts this win on cardio and conditioning more than other things, but I still had enough time that I got ready just fine. I feel my conditioning is right where it should be for a five round fight."