Dan Henderson is currently in preparation for his upcoming fight against opposing TUF 9 coach Michael Bisping.
The two will meet as one of the featured bouts at “UFC 100: Lesnar vs. Mir 2” taking place July 11, 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nev.
Henderson joined host Larry Pepe on Monday night’s Pro MMA Radio show to talk about the July 11th bout as well as his time serving as coach of Team U.S. on season nine of Spike TV’s “The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs U.K.”
Here are highlights of the Dan Henderson interview on Pro MMA Radio from July 1, 2009:
He mentioned Damarques Johnson as a fighter he could see having a future in the UFC. He also stated Johnson had a case of bronchitis leading up to the TUF 9 Finale and that probably played a role as to why he looked “flat” in his fight against James Wilks.
As their coach, Henderson was disappointed Team U.S. did not walk away from The Ultimate Fighter with a winner. However, he said he was more disappointed for Damarques Johnson, who was a much better fighter than what he showed in the Finale.
The subject of Jason Pierce revealing Team U.S. training secrets to Team U.K. came up. While filming the show, Pierce told Henderson that it was not true he had revealed anything.
Once the episode aired showing Pierce betraying his teammates, Henderson realized he had been lied to by his student. Henderson said, “To have no respect for your team, and in this case your country who you’re representing…he definitely didn’t didn’t come off making any new fans that’s for sure.”
Henderson goes on to call Pierce a “chickenshit” and said he lost all respect for him.
Henderson gave some insight into The Ultimate Fighter season 10. He said Rampage was pretty much forced to do the show and he did not really want to coach again. He also said from what he heard Rampage and Rashad started off OK as TUF 10 began filming but things quickly “went south.”
When Henderson was asked about his reference of Michael Bisping as a “douche bag,” he replied, “He is a little bit arrogant and full of himself and he is a douche bag.”
Hendo said there were quite a few fighters and people in the industry who had the same feelings about Bisping. Apparently Henderson has received numerous requests from people to beat up Michael Bisping, “Everybody I talk to basically tells me to beat him up for them. It’s a very common request.”
In all fairness, Hendo did say he has not spent enough time around him to really form an opinion if he likes him or dislikes him, but he has “spent enough time around him to know he’s a bit of a douche bag.”
“He is similar to Rich Franklin, just not as well-rounded and not as skilled,” Hendo said.
After Henderson’s defeat of Rich Franklin at UFC 93, Franklin made a comment inferring he thought he had been robbed. Henderson said he was very surprised at Franklin’s comment. He was also surprised one judge had given the fight to Franklin.
Hendo prefers the old Pride FC way of judging fights in which they don’t score it by rounds but the ruling is based on the whole fight. As an example he uses the recent fight between Wanderlei Sivla and Rich Franklin. He said, “In Pride he [Wandy] would have won that fight.”
Henderson said he used to never even look at who was judging the fights and only recently has he began to look at who the judges are before the fight.
If Henderson does not get a shot for the title again at 185 lbs. he wants to go back up to 205 lbs.
Pro MMA Radio with host Larry Pepe broadcasts live every Monday night beginning at 6pm PT/9pm ET. Visit www.prommaradio.com to hear this most recent episode, which also includes an interview with Bobby Lashley talking about his recent win over Bob Sapp, as well as all the free archives.
By: Jack Bratcher