UFC light heavyweight Dan Henderson entered his UFC 157 match-up with Lyoto Machida on an impressive winning streak including success against legends like Fedor Emelianenko and Mauricio Rua. However, Henderson was never able to land enough offense against Machida to continue his run, falling by Split Decision.
One person who wasn’t surprised by the stumble was fellow UFC fighter Michael Bisping. The Brit, who lost by knockout to Henderson years ago, felt fairly certain Machida would win the fight going in based on how reliant “Hendo” is on landing one of his patented “H-Bombs”.
Bisping told Bloody Elbow…
“Obviously that fight didn’t deliver the fireworks that were expected. I think everybody knew, deep down, that was how the fight was going to go. When I fought Henderson, I tried to use a similar gameplan, but he did land that big shot. Anyone that knows the fight game knew that Machida would use his footwork and elusiveness to try and get in and out, and avoid that big haymaker.”
“I thought Machida won the fight. He got booed after, and I didn’t agree with the booing. He did what he needed to do to win. Was it the most exciting thing I’ve ever seen? Absolutely not. I’m not saying Dan isn’t a good fighter, because he is, and he was good enough to knock me out, but if he doesn’t land that big shot, he doesn’t really have a Plan B, and he doesn’t use his wrestling much anymore. He’s just always looking to land that big right hand, and if he can’t land it, as we saw the other night, he comes up short.”
SOURCE: Bloody Elbow
PHOTO CREDIT: UFC
Lyoto Machida: “I have what it takes to knock Dan Henderson out.”
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lyoto needs to go to russian to train to beat jones…this is what he is missing all along in his arsenic….. mistique
Bisping has a point, though I’d rather see Henderson throw haymakers than grapple-hump his way to a win any day of the week.
Bisping should worry about not getting knocked out himself rather than Hendo KOing people.