Background check: Dan Henderson

Dan Henderson was born August 24th 1970. He is 5ft 11in tall and weighs in at 185lb with a 74 inch reach. He is an experienced wrestler having been an NCAA division 1 wrestler and a Greco-Roman wrestler at the Olympics, he is also well versed in kickboxing. Henderson’s record stands at 25-7 (11ko, 1sub). His MMA debut was against Crezio De Souza in Brazil Open 97, which Dan won by TKO in round 1.

Henderson beat Gilbert Yvel, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Carlos Newton and Renato Sobral inside his first 9 fights. In Henderson’s tenth fight he faced Wanderlei Silva at Pride 12. Henderson was unbeaten with a record of 9-0 but suffered a loss by decision at the hands of Silva. Henderson has since beaten Murilo Rua, Renzo Gracie, Murilo Bustamante twice, Yuki Kondo, Akihiro Gono, Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva all in Pride, just to name a few. 

He made his UFC debut in 2007 where he lost a decision to Quinton Jackson at UFC 75. After also losing to Anderson Silva, by submission at UFC 82, Henderson got back to winning ways beating Rousimar Palhares at UFC 88. After also winning by Decision against Rich Franklin at UFC 93 he was matched against Michael Bisping at UFC 100 in 2009. Henderson produced a fantastic 2nd round knockout with a huge right hand that cleanly floored Bisping.

Henderson is now signed for Strikeforce and will face Jake Shields at Strikeforce: Nashville on April 17th.