UFC 139 Results: What We Learned About Dan Henderson

Dan Henderson is one of the toughest men alive.

After watching him slug it out with Shogun Rua for 25 minutes, getting rocked numerous times, completely exhausted and surviving on nothing but heart in the final round, you can’t help but admire how tough Hendo really is.

But while we have much to love about last night, it showed some serious weaknesses in Henderson’s game as well.

First of all, it showed the “H-Bomb” is not an instant kill.

Shogun got hit with the vicious right hand early and often, and while it rocked him on occasion, he was able to survive.

While the punch did a lot of damage, it wasn’t the weapon that many people thought it was going into the fight.

The other huge thing we learned about Henderson last night is that he has a lot of trouble going five rounds.

While the two did fight at a tremendous pace for the first few rounds, it seemed obvious that neither fighter had trained for a five-rounder.

When Henderson was too exhausted to stuff Shogun’s takedowns, that’s when it became clear that he was in serious trouble, and his lack of conditioning almost cost him the fight.

If the judges had given the final round to Shogun with a 10-8 score, we would have been looking at a draw, and it was all because Henderson was too exhausted to get off the mat.

While it was one of the best fights of all time and an instant classic to add to Dan Henderson’s resume, the fact is that he didn’t look unbeatable last night and cannot afford to show up and fight like that against Anderson Silva or Jon Jones.