Hendo: How I deal with the itch to return
Dan Henderson: “I don’t dwell on things like that. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking that I got f@#$ed.”
MMA great Dan Henderson recently conducted a long and terrific interview with Dave Meltzer for MMA Fighting, that is must-read for the hardcore MMA fanbase, and all the more so if you know PRIDE never die. Hendo is 46 now and was the oldest UFC fighter on the roster when he retired after barely losing a title shot to Michael Bisping in October. Under PRIDE’s who-hurt-who more judging criteria, Hendo won that fight too.
So does that bother him enough to want to come back?
“Obviously it’s a little frustrating and bums me out,” he said. “It leaves a bad taste in my mouth with how I went out. I felt that I should have won that fight and retired as champion. I don’t dwell on things like that. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking that I got f***ed. But it’s a little frustrating. I don’t think a day goes by where somebody doesn’t bring it up, unfortunately. It was what it was. I can move on, but I felt that I beat him up and he didn’t do anything to me, so why should he have won?”
However, that frustration does not translate to wanting to fight on.
“No, I don’t have any itch,” said Hendo. “It was enough time, 20 years of doing it. If I had the itch, I’d go to the gym, spar with my guys, and I’ll be dead for the rest of the day. And that will get rid of the itch.”