Henderson Was Interested in Heavyweight Tourney Spot

Quote :

Dan Henderson is not a heavyweight, but he told Strikeforce he’d consider competing in the promotion’s upcoming heavyweight tournament.

“They had kind of approached me about fighting in that heavyweight tournament just to see how I’d feel about it,” Henderson revealed recently during a “Savage Dog Show” interview on the Sherdog Radio Network. “I told them I was open to it. It was interesting. Definitely a huge challenge, and that’s one of the reasons why I’m still in the sport, just to challenge myself.”

Henderson is no stranger to fighting in tournaments or against heavier competition. After winning two four-man tournaments to start his career, he captured the 32-man Rings “King of Kings” field in February 2000. En route to the finals he won a split decision over future heavyweight great Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira.

“I think there’s a couple of matchups that would have been interesting for me or fun to do,” Henderson said of the Strikeforce tournament. “I don’t think I would have won the tournament by any means, but possibly. Of course I said that when I went into that Rings ‘King of Kings’ tournament. I didn’t think I was going to win it, but I was going to do my best.”

Henderson, who has competed as light as 183 pounds, said his participation was nixed because Strikeforce had no trouble finding heavyweights. The field is strong with Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva, Andrei Arlovski, Sergei Kharitonov, Josh Barnett and Brett Rogers.

The tournament will play out over multiple events, meaning no one will have to fight more than once in a single night. Although Henderson understands the value of letting fighters come in fresh, he doesn’t disagree with how tournaments were run earlier in his career either. On four occasions he fought multiple times in the same night.

“There’s also something to seeing what some of these fighters are made of on the inside and making them push through two or three fights in a night,” Henderson said.

Strikeforce plans on completing the tournament this year, meaning someone will have to win three fights in 2011. Henderson likes the odds on two fighters in particular.

“I would probably have to put money on either Fedor or Overeem,” he said. “Overeem hasn’t really been tested lately past the first few minutes of a fight. He’s a monster. He’s a beast these days.”

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/Henderson-Was-Interested-in-Heavyweight-Tourney-Spot-30005

could have been interesting.

yeah but the only fight i would give him any chance in would be against AA or Sergei

OU wrote:

could have been interesting.

He would get beat up but yeah it would be interesting.

killerofchicken wrote:

yeah but the only fight i would give him any chance in would be against AA or Sergei

Yep

Of course he wanted to be in it, Hendo is the man.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Of course he wanted to be in it, Hendo is the man.

That's true

Hecks yeh

Hendo gets beat down by any of the people in the tourney.

I doubt it

bobbitt15 wrote:

I doubt it

Come on dude who does he beat Bobbitt?

timthebim wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

I doubt it

Come on dude who does he beat Bobbitt?

dont see him making too big of an impact against any of the guys in it now... shit, Rogers?

killerofchicken wrote:

timthebim wrote:

bobbitt15 wrote:

I doubt it

Come on dude who does he beat Bobbitt?

dont see him making too big of an impact against any of the guys in it now... shit, Rogers?

Maybe but I dont think he beats Grim either so I dont know who he is talking about.

i'm not saying that he'd get steam rolled but i doubt he'd beat any of them... shits he's up there in age

killerofchicken wrote:

i'm not saying that he'd get steam rolled but i doubt he'd beat any of them... shits he's up there in age

My point exactly. It isnt that he is bad but he is old.

I give hendo a half ass chance against the smaller guys like aa. This is mma and not a k-1 fight. Again thats a half ass chance being these guys are still 30 + pounds

sokolkevin wrote:

I give hendo a half ass chance against the smaller guys like aa. This is mma and not a k-1 fight. Again thats a half ass chance being these guys are still 30 + pounds

Punchers chance maybe is about it.

Remember that list of 'odds to win the SF Grand Prix'? I would bet Hendo would be placed around 5th to 7th to win it all. All this time and you guys are still falling back to size? Hendo would be game against everyone in the tourney, it's not like he's never fought and beat dangerous HWs before when he was less skilled. He could KO any of them.

GDPofDRC wrote:

Remember that list of 'odds to win the SF Grand Prix'? I would bet Hendo would be placed around 5th to 7th to win it all. All this time and you guys are still falling back to size? Hendo would be game against everyone in the tourney, it's not like he's never fought and beat dangerous HWs before when he was less skilled. He could KO any of them.

he has fought at a HW lvl but not while hes 40 years old

Tradeoff my man.

Maybe he is not in as good of shape now compared to then
Maybe he is more skilled now compared to then

There is a certain level of great you just can't write off.

I'm not writing Hendo off at LHW or MW, but am 100% writing him off at hw at this time I'n his career, a punchers chance at best

Fedor, Reem, Silva, Barnett (Focused) no chance

AA, Serg, Rogers has a chance for sure

Werdum, punchers chance.

Yeah Ii think Hendo hits like a Heavyweight, especially the overhand right. He would have a quickness advantage over most too which would assist in him not being (t)ko'd for the first time in his long career. Reach would be the biggest killer for him though against all of them and grappling would see him hurt by the better rollers.

I think he'd have a chance against Fedor. Size would be pretty even, both are getting up there in age, his chin should stand up fairly well to Fedor's power, and his greco matches well against Fedor's Judo.

If Fedor loses to Silva that might be a fight that we see. Hendo has talked about it in the past.