Dan Henderson Is "Decision Dan" No More After Knocking out Fedor Emelianenko

Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson was capped off with a bang as both the current Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Dan Henderson and heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko came out swinging for the fences in the opening stanza of their highly anticipated bout.

Fedor came out bringing the pressure until Henderson fired a left hook that backed the veteran up and forced him to clinch up with Henderson against the fence. The crowd was fired up to say the least.

Towards the end of the first round Fedor pushed forward once again landing punches that eventually dropped Henderson. With Fedor in a dominant position Henderson grabbed hold of Fedor's leg and used the opportunity to scoot out from underneath the Russian fighter.

It looked as if Henderson was going to gain top control, look for some ground and pound and get to the second round of the fight with the nifty little maneuver he pulled off. But no, there was no need for a second round in this fight as Henderson threw a solid punch under the armpit of Fedor that connected and dropped the Russian from being on all fours to lying down face first on the mat.

Once Fedor dropped, Henderson opened up his ground and pound until referee Herb Dean decided to step in and stop the fight. Fedor told post-fight interviewer Gus Johnson that he felt the fight was stopped a little too early, but it really did look as if he had lost consciousness after Henderson landed that punch from underneath.

Whether it was premature or not, Dan Henderson, a 207-pound fighter who can make the cut to middleweight, defeated the decorated heavyweight Fedor.

Henderson is riding a huge wave of momentum right now and at 40 years old we're maybe looking at the next Randy Couture in terms of success at such an old age.

Despite Henderson's resurgence, the days where many referred to him as "Decision Dan" aren't too long ago.

Henderson is 28-8 in mixed martial arts and of his 28 victories, 13 have been by way of decision. And those decisions are the reason "Decision Dan" was often interchanged with his other nicknames "Hendo" and "Dangerous Dan."

"Decision Dan" simply doesn't fit the fighter's most recent body of work anymore. The Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion is 4-1 in his last five fights and all four of those victories have come by way of spectacular knockout or technical knockout.

It started off with a massive knockout win over Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in 2009, which was followed up by a bump in the road as Henderson lost a unanimous decision to then-Strikeforce Middleweight Champion Jake Shields.

After the loss to Shields, Henderson moved up to light heavyweight where he knocked out Renato Sobral and Rafael Cavalcante to take the title, and now his most recent foray into the heavyweight division resulted in the knockout over Emelianenko.

Usually an athlete's career has a pretty parabolic trajectory—start at the bottom, work towards the top and then fall from grace into retirement. It is rare to see an athlete have as much success as Henderson is having at 40 years old and it will be interesting to see how much he has left in the tank.

With no fights left on his current contract, Henderson is now on the market for a new one. Although Strikeforce probably wants to keep their light heavyweight champion around, one would imagine that after all of Henderson's recent success that another go around in the UFC is a possibility.

It will be interesting to see how the contract negotiations play out for Henderson because the last time he was in negotiations with the UFC they turned sour and it was the main reason why he ended up fighting for Strikeforce.

Whether he ends up staying with Strikeforce or getting another shot in the UFC one thing that is for sure: the nickname "Decision Dan" is warranted no more.

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