Dan Henderson vs Shogun Rua 1
November 19, 2011 was one of the greatest days in MMA history as it served up two of the greatest fights the sport has ever seen in two completely separate promotions. Over in Bellator, relative unknown Michael Chandler had quietly won himself the Bellator Lightweight tournament and was set to challenge one of the top lightweights in the world in Eddie Alvarez for the title. We got 4 rounds of one of the craziest fights ever seen as well as a huge upset. As seemingly is always the case for Bellator though, that fight was somewhat overshadowed by UFC 139. Because on that card we got a match up between two former Pride FC legends whom had never fought one another - Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua.
For Shogun, it was a in a time where he was trying to rebuild. He had been out for a long time due to knee injury and had returned to get smoked by a young Jon Jones. He’d get a quick revenge KO win over Forrest Griffin and was hoping that a win over Hendo would get him another shot at Jones. For Dan Henderson, it was a triumphant return to the UFC immediately after his Strikeforce run that saw him become middleweight champ and destroy heavyweight GOAT Fedor Emelianenko. And it was 5 rounds of mayhem.
If you’re a “new” fan who has never gotten the opportunity to watch this, do yourself a favor and schedule 30 minutes to sit and do so.
