Hendo weighing his options

Dan Henderson has been so great, for so long, that it feels like there are two of him, at least. At 45, on the undercard of a PPV, he withstood massive punishment, and became the first person to KO Hector Lombard. And he took a massive gamble – Saturday night was the last fight on his contract. He’s a free agent coming off a massive win.

As the oldest fighter on the roster, it would be very awesome if Dan Henderson retired on a high. UFC president Dana White can give him an office and a title like Senior Vice President for Knocking Fools the F@$% Out.

At the UFC 199 post-fight press conference, Hendo mulled over some of his options, and talked about the tough first round.

“It’s always nicer to not get hurt in that round,” said Hendo, as transcribed by Luke Thomas for MMA Fighting. “I know that I felt like I hurt him a little bit and came in. He popped me. Next thing you know I’m on the ground, but I was aware the whole time on the ground. Obviously, I said ‘s***!’ So, I just knew I needed to recover and try to get back up.

“He kept on me. He didn’t hurt me to where I was not knowing what was going on, but he had me in trouble for a while. The second time I went down, I feel like I remember being on my hands still and he threw a knee on my head and knocked me down again. I just decided to hold onto him and recover and start in round two.”

“I don’t want to make any decisions emotionally, but knowing that in my mind there’s a possibility that might’ve been the last one. It was obviously a good one to have that and all my kids and everybody were able to come. It was a little more emotional.

“Yeah, I don’t know. It all depends on what my options are afterwards. Obviously, I’m going to need a paycheck for a little while, but we’ll see what happens.”

“It’s never been an identity thing. Obviously, the money helps. I love doing this, though, and I love getting paid to do it. For me, it’s along the way been more about the challenge. Every opponent I get is a different challenge. Sometimes bigger. They’re just different. I feel like as I’ve gotten older it’s a different type of challenge. I’m kind of challenging myself with my opponent and time as well. I’m definitely older than the average guy fighting, for sure.

“I feel good. I feel like I’m still capable of competing with the top guys. It’s more about the other things I want to do in life and spending time with the kids. I’ve managed to do that just fine along the way. But I’m getting close to being ready to being done and being OK with it. I’ve been OK with it for a while. If I look back at what I’ve done, I’m completely OK with it. I feel good about myself as well.”

“We’ll see. I’m not making any decisions now. I’m just going to wait and see what happens and see what my options are.”

In a perfect world, Hendo retires and lives happily ever after, remembering his kid’s names. In another perfect world, he is offered a rematch with Michael Bisping at UFC 200.