As I posted an article on the fighting style of UFC champion Anderson Silva as a lead up to this fight, it’s both fair and necessary to do the same for Pride welterweight champion Dan Henderson. (for those who need the clarification, Pride doesn’t have a 170 pound division, and their welterweight is 185 pounds)
Dan Henderson has been one of the most well respected fighters in the world for a long time, but it is not simply his respectability that has led the UFC to give him two title shots in a row. It’s the fact that he is the only man ever to hold two titles in Pride. This is a look at how he got them, and why he’s been one of the most dominant and physically powerful fighters in two weight classes for years.
The first thing that needs to be acknowledged is that when Dan Henderson fights up in weight, he is still often the more physically powerful fighter, because of something that his opponents and training partners describe as the “gorilla grip.”
Gorilla grip really isn’t doing it justice. In the greco-clinch, Dan Henderson is a vice with legs. He gets a hold of his opponents and just imposes his will. It’s not solely because of his conditioning, but also because of his wrestling ability.
Dan’s clinch is one of the most technical attack styles around, and, like most of his fighting style, he operates it with such aggression and commitment that he’s basically pinning himself to his opponent and working them to the mat, where he basically pins them, a la his Olympic caliber Greco-Roman wrestling, and delivers punishment.
Of all of Dan Henderson’s weapons’, though, there’s one that’s respected more than his wrestling, more than that Olympic experience, because of what it’s done in this sport, and that’s his right hand.
Dan’s not credited with being a great boxer, and he never will be. He doesn’t utilize combinations the way that people think he should and he never really sets his moves up with head movement, the way that a lot of great counterpunchers do.
If any part of his style is to be credited with setting up his right hand, it’s his chin. Rarely do I get the opportunity to watch a fighter as willing to eat a punch as Henderson outside of the heavyweight division, but Henderson is one of the guys who has no problem with mixing it up, and he does it better than anyone else.
Henderson moves forward when he fights, and usually that’s because his opponents are wary of his right hand. I’m not sure if Anderson Silva will show it serious respect in their upcoming fight, but there’s definitely a chance that we will see Henderson move Silva into the cage because of his ability to dominate with his right hand and his clinch game. The combination tends to keep opponent’s on their heels, trying to just throw jabs at Henderson and work combinations.
In 28 fights, Henderson has never been knocked out, and his ability to keep moving forward has a huge psychological effect on his opponent, something that I call the “Mark Hunt effect.”
It’s one thing to know that you are hitting your opponent and that you are doing damage, but when you throw a combination you expect to do damage at a guy and he keeps moving forward, there’s a serious mental flag that goes up. A little siren in the back of your head says “wait, that didn’t hurt this guy.” That flag can be ignored if it only pops up one or two times, but if it goes off enough and a fighter starts to realize it, it can really get to him.
There are plenty of guys who try to recreate that impact by smiling and giving their opponent the little “bring-it-on” wave, but every competant fighter, especially a great standup guy, knows that his opponent is taking notice when he does that, knows that his opponent got woken up a little bit. We saw that understanding in Patrick Cote’s fight with Drew McFedries not to long ago.
It’s something totally different when your opponent doesn’t even look like he noticed, and that’s the kind of chin that only guys like Hunt and Henderson seem to offer.
Henderson attacks constantly, whether with the clinch or from his feet, using his right haymaker. It’s really hard to explain how hard Dan Henderson hits, but Frank Trigg put it better than anyone else when he said that getting hit with Henderson’s right hand will put you out, regardless of where it hits your head, but if you catches you flush, that’s the night. Just ask Wanderlei Silva.
Dan hits like a ton of bricks, and he carries his hand in close to his head, almost as if it’s glued to his cauliflower. This is what may present problems for Silva, as it makes it nearly impossible for a fighter standing orthodox to land a clean shot.
If you want to look at the ways to beat Henderson, there are really a few that have been tested, and I expect that Anderson will try to use them to the best of his ability. There are really two tactics that seem to work the best.
The first is to maintain distance and use some technical striking to avoid the right hand. It’s about not being intimidated by Henderson’s relentless attack and just bobbing and weaving. I expect Anderson to do a lot of that, given that’s what he’s good at. It’s also the ability to really use kicks that really plays a big roll for the guys that beat Dan, because that is what keeps him out of the range he needs to use that right haymaker.
Maintaining that distance will give you the opportunity to win a decision, but in a 25 minute fight, Silva may decide that standing with a guy he’s not going to KO is not really his best option.
The second is to attack him from the guard, but that seems to get harder and harder as Dan’s ground game develops farther from wrestling. Still, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to see Anderson pulling out a submission again Henderson, when you consider that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira did it with an armbar when he fought Henderson.
That’s not to say that Henderson’s submission game is bad, but it is his weakest link, and certainly has presented more problems for Henderson than anything else. While he’s worked to shore it up, he’s not at the level of a BJJ blackbelt, and if Anderson can exploit that deficiency, we’ll definitely see some technical groundwork from both fighters.
The secret to beating Henderson on the ground is to not get trapped and not get frustrated. Even Rampage Jackson got a little flustered early in the fight when dealing with Henderson’s raw strength. If Anderson can keep cool and use his jiu-jitsu to create a solid position, instead of getting pinned to the mat by the Greco-Roman skills of Silva, he can use the principle that the Gracie’s have been teaching for years: leverage is greater than strength.
As true as that may be, we can’t forget that Henderson is unrivaled in strength at 185 pounds.
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