MMAWeekly: First thing I’m sure everyone is curious about, what have you been up to since we last saw you in the ring against Murilo Bustamante at PRIDE’s Final Conflict show this past November?
Dan Henderson: I’ve been taking it a little bit easier of late. I’ve been nursing some injuries hoping to get back up to 100% and helping some of the new guys out. I’ve been doing a little bit more in that aspect rather than just training myself.
MMAWeekly: Speaking of training, did you help Team Quest partner Randy Couture out for his fight with Vitor Belfort at UFC 46?
Dan Henderson: Actually no, I didn’t get a chance to. We were supposed to get together, he was going to fly down and meet me in Sacramento, but he was snowed in a good three or four days when that was supposed to happen. So we didn’t get a chance to train together other than when we were in Vegas (in the days prior to the fight).
MMAWeekly: Going back a little bit to your last fight with Bustamante. There was some controversy and rumblings from him that the fight should be ruled a no contest due to the fact he says it was the accidental headbutt that caused him to go down rather than your striking. Give us your thoughts on the fight.
Dan Henderson: For that fight I was not trying to be overly aggressive with my strikes. I was going to try to kick at him a little bit and wait for him to try to take me down and either by kneeing him or pushing off, make him stand back up. He was coming in and I was actually looking to punch him with my right hand and he started to change levels to shoot in for a leg attack so I changed levels and we ****** heads a little bit. I hurt my head a little bit, but it wasn’t overly bad or hard. You know I’ve ****** heads a lot harder in wrestling without getting any loopiness out of it. I don’t know if it stunned him but he kept trying to take me down so I pushed him off and caught him with a nice knee in the face and that’s what I think really got him and I threw some punches to finish him off.
MMAWeekly: So you don’t feel that the impact of your heads coming together had anything to do with the outcome of the fight?
Dan Henderson: Well I don’t know what happened to him or how it effected him, but again I’ve seen guys **** heads a lot harder than that in wrestling. I see it all the time and guys don’t whine about it like he did. I was really surprised that he was saying the things he was after the fight that it was because of the headbutt. I know he knows it was unintentional and that’s part of the sport. Whether it effected him or not he should have been able to recover and it was right after that I caught him with the knee. The knee was pretty solid, I mean it hurt afterwards so I caught him really good with it.
MMAWeekly: Have PRIDE officials talked to you at all about the fight, changing the ruling or having a potential rematch?
Dan Henderson: No, I’ve never heard a word about it. I know he would like a rematch which is a fairly common occurrence after you loose a match to try to redeem yourself by fighting the same guy, but I’ve never been that way myself. You know I’d like to fight Wanderlei Silva again, but I wasn’t asking for a rematch right away. It’s been over three years since we fought and the only reason I want a rematch is because he’s got the Middleweight Championship belt, not because I lost to him.
MMAWeekly: Staying with the subject of Silva, do you feel with all that you’ve accomplished in PRIDE since that first match at PRIDE 12 that you are due for a title shot against him?
Dan Henderson: Absolutely, I think I’ve proved myself. I feel I’m one of the top guys if not the top guy in PRIDE at this weight.
MMAWeekly: What about Ricardo Arona, he’s undefeated in PRIDE so far and defeated you at PRIDE 20?
Dan Henderson: I’d fight him again as well, but it really doesn’t matter to me. I’d like to fight him but his fighting style doesn’t make for an entertaining fight which is what happened last time. I would definitely change some tactics. I was overly aggressive and tried to make the fight happen and knock him out which cost me the fight as I was taken down too much and controlled. I know I can beat him the next time we fight, but it doesn’t matter to me if I never fight him at all. I’m just looking to get a championship belt.
MMAWeekly: You bring up an interesting point about trying to push a fight and make it more exciting. Your teammate Matt Lindland has been accused of being somewhat boring and people want him to push the pace, and Jens Pulver admitted after he left the UFC he felt a lot of pressure to put on a more spectacular show and it cost him. Does that ever enter into your mind or do you feel any pressure in that regard at all?
Dan Henderson: No, it’s always been my style when I wrestled, because I’m out there trying to score points rather than just holding on to win. But, no, I don’t feel any pressure as far as outside influences go. I like to fight high-energy but I’ve got to tone myself down sometimes because I get taken down every once in a while when I’m too aggressive.
MMAWeekly: You missed out on last year’s Grand Prix due to a knee injury correct?
Dan Henderson: Yeah, I had knee surgery and I wasn’t able to go into the first round (at Total Elimination in August) on one leg. It’s coming along pretty well; I still need to strengthen the leg up. It’s not 100% yet; right now it’s at about 90%, because I’ve been having a little trouble with that last little strengthening part.
MMAWeekly: How did it feel in your fight against Murilo?
Dan Henderson: I didn’t do much as far as having to scramble around on it. My knee must have been fixed though, because it’s the one that hit him in the face and it obviously worked well for that. Training for the fight the week before, I noticed it was weaker but it wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t going to dwell on it, I was going in with what I had and you know what happened.
MMAWeekly: From what I understand you took that fight on short notice, can you tell us how far in advance you were notified by PRIDE about it?
Dan Henderson: I was off hunting in Colorado when I found out about it. I had one week at home in California before I had to leave for Japan. So it was about ten days before the fight when I started training for it.
MMAWeekly: PRIDE has a tendency to book fighters on very short notice, what are your thoughts about that and the lack of time you get to prepare for fights.
Dan Henderson: There’s a big downside to it. You don’t get to prepare the way you would prepare normally. It becomes a matter of who’s training harder in their off time. That’s my biggest gripe with PRIDE, they give us last-minute notices with a lot of fights. That fight (with Bustamante) was probably the worst one I had as far as short-notices go, it was even shorter than when I fought against (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira.
MMAWeekly: There have been some rumors that you said you were interested in fighting in this year’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, can you clear those up for us now?
Dan Henderson: Yeah, well what I had said in a Japanese interview was that I wanted to get a title shot this year and that I might have to fight in the Grand Prix to get a belt.
MMAWeekly: Currently the Grand Prix is set up for heavyweights only, even though there was talk it may become open-weight. If it stays a heavyweight only tournament, how do you feel going in against guys 230+ pounds like Nogueira was?
Dan Henderson: I weigh around 195 generally for almost every fight and I’ve fought plenty of guys that were 230-240 before and it’s not that bad. I fought 3 guys over 230 in one night in RINGS. It’s not the funnest thing, I’d rather fight guys my size but it makes it interesting for fans to see how the little guy is going to do. I know I’m capable of definitely pulling off some upsets and could win the tournament I think. I haven’t really asked PRIDE or pursued it, I said I would be interested if they asked me to and I wouldn’t turn it down.
MMAWeekly: I think what concerns people the most about you wanting to fight in the tournament is based on what they saw when you lost to Nogueira at PRIDE 24. Do you feel that it was because of the short notice and not the weight difference that determined the outcome of that fight?
Dan Henderson: I don’t know, it’s hard to say what would have happened if I had more time to prepare. It might have came out the same way as it was, but I’m not going to whine about that. It’s always nice to feel 100% prepared for a fight. I did get tired and I think that was the turning point of the fight. When the third round came, I was exhausted and I didn’t do a whole lot and he capitalized on it and submitted me. If he were my size I think I’d beat him pretty bad, but the way it is, is he’s bigger and definitely tough and proved himself. For me that was one of the funner fights I’ve had. I didn’t have any pressure on me, he’s bigger and I was supposed to loose, I only kick myself in the butt because I should have beat him, I just got tired at the end.
MMAWeekly: If you do enter the Heavyweight Grand Prix, we already know that Heath Herring and Mirko “Cro Cop?Filipovic are scheduled to compete in it, what are your thoughts about matching up with them?
Dan Henderson: Heath, well he’s a big guy, but he’s had his struggles these last couple years, I don’t think Holland is doing him justice in his training and I think that shows in his performance. I know he just beat Gan McGee, other than that he hasn’t done that well overall or looked that impressive to me.
MMAWeekly: So you’d be more than happy to invite him over to train with Team Quest?
Dan Henderson: Oh, absolutely. I like Heath Herring, and I think that would improve him immensely if he did do that.
MMAWeekly: And Mirko?
Dan Henderson: I’d think it’d be really fun for me to fight Cro Cop, I think my style matches up really well with him. I would definitely have to work on blocking his head kicks. I think a lot of guys are afraid to exchange with him on their feet, and that’s what Nogueira's problem was in the first round of their fight. He was trying to take Mirko down, and didn’t have that good of a takedown and it didn’t work out well for him. He exchanged with him in the second round and ended up getting the takedown. I think that’s the key, to not be afraid to exchange (with Mirko), and I know I hit hard, and he probably knows I hit hard, I know he kicks hard and it looks like he hits hard so it would be interesting. I think the biggest thing is that I have pretty good takedowns and I know quite a few submissions. Submissions are tough to get sometimes though, and I like to stand and fight as well and that’s not out of the question. I think that’d feel good and see how I’d do and test myself a little bit. I’d test myself to the point where I’d be careful about it and not get my head knocked off.
MMAWeekly: I’m sure though even if you don’t enter the tournament you would like to fight sometime soon and most likely before mid-year correct?
Dan Henderson: Yes, if I don’t fight in the April show then I’ll fight in the next one. I want to fight Wanderlei for the title, or if someone beats him before me then I’ll fight whoever beats him, I just want that belt.
MMAWeekly: Have you been contacted about fighting possibly in the Bushido series?
Dan Henderson: Not lately, no I haven’t. I was contacted prior to the first one last year, but that’s right around when I had my knee surgery so I couldn’t do it. I would be interested in doing a team-themed show though. Something like Team Quest versus whomever they put in front of us. You know with myself, Matt Lindland, Evan Tanner, and a couple of our other guys who could step up and beat some of those guys over there in PRIDE. I think that would be a big draw and we’d get a big audience for it. Put us up against the Brazilian Top Team, the Chute Boxe guys, or a Japanese team and see what happens.
MMAWeekly: Speaking of Matt, he was said to have been offered a chance to fight in PRIDE against Sakuraba at Shockwave on New Year’s Eve but it never materialized. What’s your take on that?
Dan Henderson: Well, I was going to go with Matt to Japan if the fight happened, but PRIDE is a little weird sometimes. There might have been rumors that leaked too early that they didn’t like so they turned around and did something else. Or it may have been that Sakuraba wanted to fight (Antonio Rogerio) Nogueira instead of Matt. I’d love to see Matt over in PRIDE; he’d be a great asset to them. Plus, it would be nice to have a teammate fighting in Japan with me. There’s also Chris Leben, who is a lighter fighter, but he wouldn’t be the smallest guy fighting for PRIDE, I’d like to see him fight in the Bushido series.
MMAWeekly: Getting away from Japan for the moment, the last time we saw you fight Stateside was all the way back at UFC 17 in 1998. Why has it been so long since you’ve fought in the States and at any time between then and now has there ever been a deal that’s come close to bringing you here?
Dan Henderson: I know they like me and I know they would like to have me there, but for one reason or another there’s never been an offer put forth at all. They have their reasons and I’m content the way I am with PRIDE. However, I wouldn’t mind fighting guys my size, which would be the 185-pound weight class which the UFC has. I wouldn’t mind fighting for the UFC or in the US, but you never know what will happen. PRIDE is supposed to be coming to the States this year and maybe they’ll start a new lower weight class.
MMAWeekly: If PRIDE creates a lower weight class, will you concentrate more on fighting in it or staying in the middleweight division fighting guys near 205 pounds?
Dan Henderson: Knowing me I’d probably train to do both. I know I can beat Wanderlei if I fought him and I’m pretty confident I could beat any guy at 185 pounds or below. So might as well do both if it happens.
MMAWeekly: If you did come to the UFC, obviously you have Matt and now Evan of your team in the middleweight division, do you think that may cause some concern for the UFC because you might not be willing to fight them?
Dan Henderson: That’s one of the questions that was raised, that if they did bring me into the UFC if I would fight Matt. Obviously Matt and myself both fight each other, wrestle each other, and beat each other up in training for free, we might as well get paid for it. We’d have fun with it and joke about it. It’s not a conflict as far as we’re concerned, but it might be with the UFC, but not us.
MMAWeekly: We learned recently that Phil Baroni was cleared to fight by the Mohegan Sun’s Athletic Commission, since he fights in the UFC and has been something of an arch nemesis to Team Quest, would you be interested in fighting him if you came to the UFC?
Dan Henderson: I’m normally pretty soft-spoken and I don’t talk smack about anything and Baroni is not that way. I’m not overly arrogant and conceted with how I portray myself, so that would be a guy I think would be fun to beat up and Matt feels the same way. Guys like Baroni are fun to shut up.
MMAWeekly: So you’d be able to do the same things that Matt did to neutralize Phil and beat him?
Dan Henderson: Yeah, but only worse.
MMAWeekly: So what are the remainder of the plans for 2004 aside from trying to get a title shot against Wanderlei?
Dan Henderson: They’re telling me that I will probably fight in June unless I get into the Grand Prix and also have another fight by November. I have two more fights under my contract with PRIDE in which I’m guaranteed two fights by November.
MMAWeekly: About how much longer do you plan on fighting for?
Dan Henderson: I don’t know. Originally when I was done wrestling and decided to fight full-time, I thought it was only going to be a year or two, and that was two years ago. I’m just taking it year by year, but as of now I’m having fun with it and my body is feeling better now than when I was wrestling. That was one of the problems when I had said in the past that I was only going to fight for two years because my body was messed up. Of course I had knee surgery last year but my body, as a whole still feels a lot better, so until I feel so worn out and drained that I don’t feel like training anymore. That’s the biggest thing, I could probably still get in the ring, but I don’t want to get in the ring without training. That happens to a lot of people who get older and don’t train as much and they still get out there but aren’t as good as they can be. I’ve still got a year or two left in me, maybe even up to 6 or 7 years, you never know. I could be like Randy at age 40 or 41 and going at it still.
MMAWeekly: Lastly, I wanted to mention one of your nicknames which is “Hollywood Henderson.?With fighters such as Randy, Matt, Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, and many PRIDE fighters?involvement with DSE’s upcoming movie “Nagurimono,?when will we see you on the silver screen?
Dan Henderson: Actually, I got hooked up doing a little stunt gig with Matt a few months ago. It should be coming out on Fox soon and I believe it’s called “The Jury? but I’m not sure. We did their first episode. It’s a small step, but it’s something I’d be interested in doing more. It’s nice to get paid for something else besides fighting and it’s fun. I don’t necessarily need the exposure, but if it’s there, it’s there.
MMAWeekly: Alright then, thanks for the interview Dan, are there any closing comments you’d like to make before heading out?
Dan Henderson: Just drink your Lite Force green drink. You can get it at our website and no problem for the interview, bye.
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Dan Henderson: I’ve been taking it a little bit easier of late. I’ve been nursing some injuries hoping to get back up to 100% and helping some of the new guys out. I’ve been doing a little bit more in that aspect rather than just training myself.
MMAWeekly: Speaking of training, did you help Team Quest partner Randy Couture out for his fight with Vitor Belfort at UFC 46?
Dan Henderson: Actually no, I didn’t get a chance to. We were supposed to get together, he was going to fly down and meet me in Sacramento, but he was snowed in a good three or four days when that was supposed to happen. So we didn’t get a chance to train together other than when we were in Vegas (in the days prior to the fight).
MMAWeekly: Going back a little bit to your last fight with Bustamante. There was some controversy and rumblings from him that the fight should be ruled a no contest due to the fact he says it was the accidental headbutt that caused him to go down rather than your striking. Give us your thoughts on the fight.
Dan Henderson: For that fight I was not trying to be overly aggressive with my strikes. I was going to try to kick at him a little bit and wait for him to try to take me down and either by kneeing him or pushing off, make him stand back up. He was coming in and I was actually looking to punch him with my right hand and he started to change levels to shoot in for a leg attack so I changed levels and we ****** heads a little bit. I hurt my head a little bit, but it wasn’t overly bad or hard. You know I’ve ****** heads a lot harder in wrestling without getting any loopiness out of it. I don’t know if it stunned him but he kept trying to take me down so I pushed him off and caught him with a nice knee in the face and that’s what I think really got him and I threw some punches to finish him off.
MMAWeekly: So you don’t feel that the impact of your heads coming together had anything to do with the outcome of the fight?
Dan Henderson: Well I don’t know what happened to him or how it effected him, but again I’ve seen guys **** heads a lot harder than that in wrestling. I see it all the time and guys don’t whine about it like he did. I was really surprised that he was saying the things he was after the fight that it was because of the headbutt. I know he knows it was unintentional and that’s part of the sport. Whether it effected him or not he should have been able to recover and it was right after that I caught him with the knee. The knee was pretty solid, I mean it hurt afterwards so I caught him really good with it.
MMAWeekly: Have PRIDE officials talked to you at all about the fight, changing the ruling or having a potential rematch?
Dan Henderson: No, I’ve never heard a word about it. I know he would like a rematch which is a fairly common occurrence after you loose a match to try to redeem yourself by fighting the same guy, but I’ve never been that way myself. You know I’d like to fight Wanderlei Silva again, but I wasn’t asking for a rematch right away. It’s been over three years since we fought and the only reason I want a rematch is because he’s got the Middleweight Championship belt, not because I lost to him.
MMAWeekly: Staying with the subject of Silva, do you feel with all that you’ve accomplished in PRIDE since that first match at PRIDE 12 that you are due for a title shot against him?
Dan Henderson: Absolutely, I think I’ve proved myself. I feel I’m one of the top guys if not the top guy in PRIDE at this weight.
MMAWeekly: What about Ricardo Arona, he’s undefeated in PRIDE so far and defeated you at PRIDE 20?
Dan Henderson: I’d fight him again as well, but it really doesn’t matter to me. I’d like to fight him but his fighting style doesn’t make for an entertaining fight which is what happened last time. I would definitely change some tactics. I was overly aggressive and tried to make the fight happen and knock him out which cost me the fight as I was taken down too much and controlled. I know I can beat him the next time we fight, but it doesn’t matter to me if I never fight him at all. I’m just looking to get a championship belt.
MMAWeekly: You bring up an interesting point about trying to push a fight and make it more exciting. Your teammate Matt Lindland has been accused of being somewhat boring and people want him to push the pace, and Jens Pulver admitted after he left the UFC he felt a lot of pressure to put on a more spectacular show and it cost him. Does that ever enter into your mind or do you feel any pressure in that regard at all?
Dan Henderson: No, it’s always been my style when I wrestled, because I’m out there trying to score points rather than just holding on to win. But, no, I don’t feel any pressure as far as outside influences go. I like to fight high-energy but I’ve got to tone myself down sometimes because I get taken down every once in a while when I’m too aggressive.
MMAWeekly: You missed out on last year’s Grand Prix due to a knee injury correct?
Dan Henderson: Yeah, I had knee surgery and I wasn’t able to go into the first round (at Total Elimination in August) on one leg. It’s coming along pretty well; I still need to strengthen the leg up. It’s not 100% yet; right now it’s at about 90%, because I’ve been having a little trouble with that last little strengthening part.
MMAWeekly: How did it feel in your fight against Murilo?
Dan Henderson: I didn’t do much as far as having to scramble around on it. My knee must have been fixed though, because it’s the one that hit him in the face and it obviously worked well for that. Training for the fight the week before, I noticed it was weaker but it wasn’t too bad. I wasn’t going to dwell on it, I was going in with what I had and you know what happened.
MMAWeekly: From what I understand you took that fight on short notice, can you tell us how far in advance you were notified by PRIDE about it?
Dan Henderson: I was off hunting in Colorado when I found out about it. I had one week at home in California before I had to leave for Japan. So it was about ten days before the fight when I started training for it.
MMAWeekly: PRIDE has a tendency to book fighters on very short notice, what are your thoughts about that and the lack of time you get to prepare for fights.
Dan Henderson: There’s a big downside to it. You don’t get to prepare the way you would prepare normally. It becomes a matter of who’s training harder in their off time. That’s my biggest gripe with PRIDE, they give us last-minute notices with a lot of fights. That fight (with Bustamante) was probably the worst one I had as far as short-notices go, it was even shorter than when I fought against (Antonio Rodrigo) Nogueira.
MMAWeekly: There have been some rumors that you said you were interested in fighting in this year’s Heavyweight Grand Prix, can you clear those up for us now?
Dan Henderson: Yeah, well what I had said in a Japanese interview was that I wanted to get a title shot this year and that I might have to fight in the Grand Prix to get a belt.
MMAWeekly: Currently the Grand Prix is set up for heavyweights only, even though there was talk it may become open-weight. If it stays a heavyweight only tournament, how do you feel going in against guys 230+ pounds like Nogueira was?
Dan Henderson: I weigh around 195 generally for almost every fight and I’ve fought plenty of guys that were 230-240 before and it’s not that bad. I fought 3 guys over 230 in one night in RINGS. It’s not the funnest thing, I’d rather fight guys my size but it makes it interesting for fans to see how the little guy is going to do. I know I’m capable of definitely pulling off some upsets and could win the tournament I think. I haven’t really asked PRIDE or pursued it, I said I would be interested if they asked me to and I wouldn’t turn it down.
MMAWeekly: I think what concerns people the most about you wanting to fight in the tournament is based on what they saw when you lost to Nogueira at PRIDE 24. Do you feel that it was because of the short notice and not the weight difference that determined the outcome of that fight?
Dan Henderson: I don’t know, it’s hard to say what would have happened if I had more time to prepare. It might have came out the same way as it was, but I’m not going to whine about that. It’s always nice to feel 100% prepared for a fight. I did get tired and I think that was the turning point of the fight. When the third round came, I was exhausted and I didn’t do a whole lot and he capitalized on it and submitted me. If he were my size I think I’d beat him pretty bad, but the way it is, is he’s bigger and definitely tough and proved himself. For me that was one of the funner fights I’ve had. I didn’t have any pressure on me, he’s bigger and I was supposed to loose, I only kick myself in the butt because I should have beat him, I just got tired at the end.
MMAWeekly: If you do enter the Heavyweight Grand Prix, we already know that Heath Herring and Mirko “Cro Cop?Filipovic are scheduled to compete in it, what are your thoughts about matching up with them?
Dan Henderson: Heath, well he’s a big guy, but he’s had his struggles these last couple years, I don’t think Holland is doing him justice in his training and I think that shows in his performance. I know he just beat Gan McGee, other than that he hasn’t done that well overall or looked that impressive to me.
MMAWeekly: So you’d be more than happy to invite him over to train with Team Quest?
Dan Henderson: Oh, absolutely. I like Heath Herring, and I think that would improve him immensely if he did do that.
MMAWeekly: And Mirko?
Dan Henderson: I’d think it’d be really fun for me to fight Cro Cop, I think my style matches up really well with him. I would definitely have to work on blocking his head kicks. I think a lot of guys are afraid to exchange with him on their feet, and that’s what Nogueira's problem was in the first round of their fight. He was trying to take Mirko down, and didn’t have that good of a takedown and it didn’t work out well for him. He exchanged with him in the second round and ended up getting the takedown. I think that’s the key, to not be afraid to exchange (with Mirko), and I know I hit hard, and he probably knows I hit hard, I know he kicks hard and it looks like he hits hard so it would be interesting. I think the biggest thing is that I have pretty good takedowns and I know quite a few submissions. Submissions are tough to get sometimes though, and I like to stand and fight as well and that’s not out of the question. I think that’d feel good and see how I’d do and test myself a little bit. I’d test myself to the point where I’d be careful about it and not get my head knocked off.
MMAWeekly: I’m sure though even if you don’t enter the tournament you would like to fight sometime soon and most likely before mid-year correct?
Dan Henderson: Yes, if I don’t fight in the April show then I’ll fight in the next one. I want to fight Wanderlei for the title, or if someone beats him before me then I’ll fight whoever beats him, I just want that belt.
MMAWeekly: Have you been contacted about fighting possibly in the Bushido series?
Dan Henderson: Not lately, no I haven’t. I was contacted prior to the first one last year, but that’s right around when I had my knee surgery so I couldn’t do it. I would be interested in doing a team-themed show though. Something like Team Quest versus whomever they put in front of us. You know with myself, Matt Lindland, Evan Tanner, and a couple of our other guys who could step up and beat some of those guys over there in PRIDE. I think that would be a big draw and we’d get a big audience for it. Put us up against the Brazilian Top Team, the Chute Boxe guys, or a Japanese team and see what happens.
MMAWeekly: Speaking of Matt, he was said to have been offered a chance to fight in PRIDE against Sakuraba at Shockwave on New Year’s Eve but it never materialized. What’s your take on that?
Dan Henderson: Well, I was going to go with Matt to Japan if the fight happened, but PRIDE is a little weird sometimes. There might have been rumors that leaked too early that they didn’t like so they turned around and did something else. Or it may have been that Sakuraba wanted to fight (Antonio Rogerio) Nogueira instead of Matt. I’d love to see Matt over in PRIDE; he’d be a great asset to them. Plus, it would be nice to have a teammate fighting in Japan with me. There’s also Chris Leben, who is a lighter fighter, but he wouldn’t be the smallest guy fighting for PRIDE, I’d like to see him fight in the Bushido series.
MMAWeekly: Getting away from Japan for the moment, the last time we saw you fight Stateside was all the way back at UFC 17 in 1998. Why has it been so long since you’ve fought in the States and at any time between then and now has there ever been a deal that’s come close to bringing you here?
Dan Henderson: I know they like me and I know they would like to have me there, but for one reason or another there’s never been an offer put forth at all. They have their reasons and I’m content the way I am with PRIDE. However, I wouldn’t mind fighting guys my size, which would be the 185-pound weight class which the UFC has. I wouldn’t mind fighting for the UFC or in the US, but you never know what will happen. PRIDE is supposed to be coming to the States this year and maybe they’ll start a new lower weight class.
MMAWeekly: If PRIDE creates a lower weight class, will you concentrate more on fighting in it or staying in the middleweight division fighting guys near 205 pounds?
Dan Henderson: Knowing me I’d probably train to do both. I know I can beat Wanderlei if I fought him and I’m pretty confident I could beat any guy at 185 pounds or below. So might as well do both if it happens.
MMAWeekly: If you did come to the UFC, obviously you have Matt and now Evan of your team in the middleweight division, do you think that may cause some concern for the UFC because you might not be willing to fight them?
Dan Henderson: That’s one of the questions that was raised, that if they did bring me into the UFC if I would fight Matt. Obviously Matt and myself both fight each other, wrestle each other, and beat each other up in training for free, we might as well get paid for it. We’d have fun with it and joke about it. It’s not a conflict as far as we’re concerned, but it might be with the UFC, but not us.
MMAWeekly: We learned recently that Phil Baroni was cleared to fight by the Mohegan Sun’s Athletic Commission, since he fights in the UFC and has been something of an arch nemesis to Team Quest, would you be interested in fighting him if you came to the UFC?
Dan Henderson: I’m normally pretty soft-spoken and I don’t talk smack about anything and Baroni is not that way. I’m not overly arrogant and conceted with how I portray myself, so that would be a guy I think would be fun to beat up and Matt feels the same way. Guys like Baroni are fun to shut up.
MMAWeekly: So you’d be able to do the same things that Matt did to neutralize Phil and beat him?
Dan Henderson: Yeah, but only worse.
MMAWeekly: So what are the remainder of the plans for 2004 aside from trying to get a title shot against Wanderlei?
Dan Henderson: They’re telling me that I will probably fight in June unless I get into the Grand Prix and also have another fight by November. I have two more fights under my contract with PRIDE in which I’m guaranteed two fights by November.
MMAWeekly: About how much longer do you plan on fighting for?
Dan Henderson: I don’t know. Originally when I was done wrestling and decided to fight full-time, I thought it was only going to be a year or two, and that was two years ago. I’m just taking it year by year, but as of now I’m having fun with it and my body is feeling better now than when I was wrestling. That was one of the problems when I had said in the past that I was only going to fight for two years because my body was messed up. Of course I had knee surgery last year but my body, as a whole still feels a lot better, so until I feel so worn out and drained that I don’t feel like training anymore. That’s the biggest thing, I could probably still get in the ring, but I don’t want to get in the ring without training. That happens to a lot of people who get older and don’t train as much and they still get out there but aren’t as good as they can be. I’ve still got a year or two left in me, maybe even up to 6 or 7 years, you never know. I could be like Randy at age 40 or 41 and going at it still.
MMAWeekly: Lastly, I wanted to mention one of your nicknames which is “Hollywood Henderson.?With fighters such as Randy, Matt, Frank Shamrock, Ken Shamrock, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, and many PRIDE fighters?involvement with DSE’s upcoming movie “Nagurimono,?when will we see you on the silver screen?
Dan Henderson: Actually, I got hooked up doing a little stunt gig with Matt a few months ago. It should be coming out on Fox soon and I believe it’s called “The Jury? but I’m not sure. We did their first episode. It’s a small step, but it’s something I’d be interested in doing more. It’s nice to get paid for something else besides fighting and it’s fun. I don’t necessarily need the exposure, but if it’s there, it’s there.
MMAWeekly: Alright then, thanks for the interview Dan, are there any closing comments you’d like to make before heading out?
Dan Henderson: Just drink your Lite Force green drink. You can get it at our website and no problem for the interview, bye.
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