Battle Royale: Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua
Dana White may be getting his money’s worth for Pride after all. In unquestionably the best night for the legacy of Pride Fighting since the folding of that organization, three certain hall of fame fighters originally from Pride delivered one of the best fight nights in memory.
After last week’s controversy, it’s going to be interesting to see how long it takes Dana White to explode at the post-fight press conference tonight or on Youtube in the coming days. It’s likely to be the second or third question about his regretting the choice for headliner last week that will light the fuse.
As I said last weekend, I have no problem with the UFC’s choice to go with the Heavyweight title for its premier showing on free FOX Television. It was a perfectly legitimate gamble. But it is amazing how fate just likes to poke at Dana White like a caged circus lion…
It’s all a gamble really, the whole sport is… so the result is you’re going to have some relative disappointments, and then you are going to have your barn-burners. Tonight’s co-main events were the later.
Wanderlei Silva got up off the mat (so to speak) after a string of losses that had even many of his die-hard fans calling for retirement. Wanderlei came into this fight (with a stylistically difficult Cung Le) with a distinct advantage of experience on the “big stage”. For a change, he also came with a strategy.
This was no walk-over for “Wand”, as Le’s notorious side kicking and spinning kick prowess was almost as painful for Silva as it had been for Frank Shamrock a few years back. As Cung Le demonstrated with Shamrock, a broken forearm is almost inevitable with Le if you let it go too long.
Smartly, Silva stuck to his game plan, which was to frustrate Le by staying out of his range (which is essentially anything other than extremely close or extremely far away). Silva showed remarkable restraint picking his spots, waiting for Le to slow a bit, serving up some of his own high kick medicine, and following his killer instinct at closing time.
It’s hard to say where Silva stands after this, because while Cung Le earned respect over his last several fights, he still is widely considered untested. Despite looking very dangerous at times tonight, experts will say the victory was enough to keep Wanderlei around, but perhaps not enough to do much more than that. It goes without saying, the tell tale fight for Wand is now his next one.
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In the main event, two other old Pride warriors went into battle. These legit living MMA legends in Mauricio Rua and Dan Henderson put on an absolute classic. Certainly the fight will be there when it’s time for the fight of the year debates.
It wasn’t very long ago that both men were riding supremely high with reputations as the cream of the MMA crop back in Pride. But, as this sport continues to move at a lightning pace and is very unforgiving to the slightest mis-step, both men were also recently on a down cycle too.
Henderson has been back on a real streak, but you only have to go back less than 2 years to see Henderson at his worst against Jake Shields in their Strikeforce matchup. While Henderson has been back on track for several fights, Rua is only recently hitting his stride again.
After a career low-light against Forrest Griffin, numerous injuries and surgeries, a resurgence in a couple of classics against Lyoto Machida (including winning the UFC Light Heavyweight title), Shogun was back in the gutter after losing the belt in a brutal demolition by Jon “Bones” Jones.
Rua bounced up once again, looking terrific against Forrest in the rematch in Brazil just a few months ago, and so the stage was set for a fight that suddenly meant something. I say that because there was a time over the course of the last three years where this match-up could have been anti-climatic.
As I’ve stated, despite the sheer legendary nature of the names involved, had this fight been made when each guy was coming off a loss and an injury (both have had serious injuries) the excitement level for this fight would have been very different.
Not to mention, under those circumstances, beyond not expecting the best from either fighter, there was the prospect of this match-up not meaning much for either guy. Again, my how this crazy sport can turn on a dime. As it turns out, this fight would most definitely have title implications.
Had Shogun pulled out the miraculous come from behind that he nearly did, he would be close (at most 1 or 2 wins) to another title shot. As it was Henderson that hung on and claimed this battle of future Hall of Famers, both the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight titles are now within striking distance for him.
It’s a shame anyone had to lose this one, and it was hard not to root for Shogun at the end of this fight, no matter who you were rooting for in the beginning of it. That’s because Shogun survived an onslaught in the early rounds that could easily have seen the fight stopped. This survival alone will be the stuff of legend one day.
Henderson himself was duly impressed, showing more respect for Shogun’s chin and heart than anyone he has ever praised in the cage before. Going into this fight, I saw it as very even, as did the odds-makers. I noted to some friends though that I had to favor Hendo for one reason… his legendary chin.
Other than Minotauro Nogueira, Chris Leben and a handful of others, Henderson’s chin stands alone in the sport’s history. We might have to add Mauricio Rua’s remarkable jaw to that list after tonight. Henderson seemed truly stunned afterwards that Shogun came back in the later rounds the way that he did.
Henderson’s only failing may be his conditioning for a 5 rounder and his over-confidence that he can turn anyone’s lights out, especially after finishing the previously “un-finishable” Fedor. Hendo needed every ounce of his granite chin in order to survive the final two rounds when Shogun’s own onslaught had him in deep trouble.
In the end, regardless of the outcome and regardless of where each man goes from here, this was an instant classic, one that we will all use as a benchmark for great fights and as a planted flag for a whole generation of fighters from the last decade that are slowly exiting the stage. This was a very big night for the UFC… and for Pride Fighting.
~ J. Wise / Guerrilla Fight – Guerrilla.Fight@Yahoo.com
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