Hendo wants rematch with Belfort, in USA

UFC middleweight Dan Henderson recently said he is not interested in fights with Michael Bisping or Tim Kennedy. In an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, Hendo said he would like to a trilogy fight with Vitor Belfort.

Hendo won the first fight at Pride 32 – The Real Deal, on October 21, 2006, in Nevada, with testing for PEDs. Belfort lost, and failed a test for elevated testosterone. Befort eventually got in then legal Testosterone Replacement Therapy, and had one of the great runs in the sport’s history, winning all three fights in 2013 vai head kick. The third head was Henderson’s, who was himself on TRT.

TRT was then banned and it was a year and half before Belfort weaned himself from TRT and recoved from injuries. After an initial, ferocious burst, Belfort lost quickly to UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman in his next outing.

Hendo stopped TRT after beating Shogun Rua in March of last year. Since then he lost to Daniel Cormier and Gegard Mousasi, and most recently beat Tim Boetsch. The RTR free Hendo wants a rubber match with Belfort, but there is a caveat.

“The two guys I’d like to fight, I guess, would be Vitor and Mousasi,” said Hendo as transcribed by Adam Guillen Jr for MMAMania. “Mousasi, if not for any other reason other than I felt that I didn’t get to fight him. And Vitor, yeah, it would be nice to fight him in the states without his doctor as the head of the athletic commission.”

“Physically he looked quite a bit different (vs. Weidman). His stamina went away pretty quick, as well. You know, I’m sure he works hard, but so do I. My body hasn’t changed in 10 years. I’m not exactly sure what’s making his body change like that, but it isn’t the same thing I was doing.”

Hendo’s dig was at Dr. Márcio Tannure, medical director for the sanctioning body in Brazil, CABMMA. Dr. Tannure also serves as the orthopedist for both Belfort and for former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.