MMA icon Dan Henderson heads back to the middleweight division on January 24 as he takes on Gegard Mousasi in the co-main event of UFC on Fox 14 at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
It’s been almost a decade since the UFC’s takeover of much loved Japanese promotion Pride Fighting Championships – the top promotion of its time, capable of drawing as many as 90,000 spectators. The former middleweight and welterweight world champion has since grown used to crowds of around the 12,000 mark while fighting under the UFC banner, but the USA’s most decorated fighter feels that old memories of Pride may surface on fight night as he steps out to fight for an anticipated crowd of over 30,000.
“I think I’ll feel that more when it’s fight night with the fans in their seats and the energy we’ll be feeling,” Henderson told MMAPlus. “It’s definitely a bigger arena than the UFC typically have; it’s not necessarily the old seventy-something-thousand that Pride would always have, but I think it will remind me of that.”
Henderson returns to the middleweight division following a difficult string of results against major light-heavyweight contenders. Henderson has won just once in his last five contests with a TKO victory over former light-heavyweight champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, but suffered split-decision losses to former champions Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, in addition to a KO loss at the hands of Vitor Belfort, and a submission loss most recently to former title challenger Daniel Cormier.
At 44-years-old ‘Hendo’ has just about done it all in his career as the USA’s most decorated fighter; however, a UFC championship is the one accolade to have eluded him, not including the UFC 17 middleweight tournament that he won in 1998.
With some feeling that Henderson should be considering retirement, MMAPlus asked the Californian to give some insight on what motivates him to continue fighting. ‘Hendo’ explained that the UFC title has been on his mind for some time, and that a desire such as this is hard to shake off.
“A title would be nice and that ultimately has been my goal for a while, and when you have a goal like that it just doesn’t go out of your mind. It’s still there but I know I’ve got some work to do to get there, and I’m more than willing to do it. I feel like I’m more than capable to achieve that.”
Photos by Jorden Curran
