Dan Henderson; "Machida did a good job of not fighting."

Quote :

Dan Henderson felt he did enough to get the decision nod against Lyoto Machida in the co-main event of UFC 157: Rousey vs. Carmouche on Saturday. Ultimately, he lost to Machida by split decision.

“In my mind, I thought I did enough to win the fight, but it was my fault. I don’t place the blame on the judges. I should have been a little bit more aggressive. I let him fight his fight a little too much,” said Henderson during the post-fight press conference.

Machida frustrated Henderson with his counter-punch style and elusive movement. The fight didn’t play out as Henderson envisioned.

a good job moving around and was real hard to hit. I needed to stay in his face and cut him off a little bit better and make him fight. He did a good job not fighting, just picking and choosing when he threw some strikes,” said Henderson.

“He did a good job moving and I shouldn’t have let the judges decide that fight.”

The frustrating loss only serves as motivation. Henderson wants to stay active throughout 2013 and believes he has more to accomplish in the sport.

“Obviously, I’m bummed out. I wasn’t planning on losing, and I’m not by any means done. I still have goals that I want to reach in this sport. I want to fight as soon as I can. I’m ready to go in June or July. I didn’t have the best last few months, but I feel a lot better now and I want to be real active this next year. That much time off is never good. I don’t want that to happen again. I’m getting a little old,” he said.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/dan-henderson-lyoto-machida-did-a-good-job-not-fighting

He's not lying, one of the most shit fights ever.

Sure was, and it's as much his fault as it is Machida's. Did he even land one punch?

Triggerman99 wrote:

it's as much his fault as it is Machida's.

NO

Why didn't the TRT reinforced Henderson close the distance and take Machida down?
Cause he couldn't.
His face looked as old as his body moved. Henderson lost the fight don't whine about it.
Did anyone expect him to lose like a man? I didn't.

Krieger wrote:

Why didn't the TRT reinforced Henderson close the distance and take Machida down?
Cause he couldn't.
His face looked as old as his body moved. Henderson lost the fight don't whine about it.
Did anyone expect him to lose like a man? I didn't.

Certainly not me.
I knew he'd do what he always does and whine in classic Hendo passive-aggressive fashion. Maybe he should spend less time complaining and more time finding a way to win other than throwing the H-bomb 75 times a fight and praying to god that it lands.

Machida did what he does best and made Hendo look desperate at times jumping for wild hay makers..not exciting and both partys could have "brought it' more, but Hendo did not win...didn't even do enough for a split decision imo...

Dan is just ticked cause Machida didnt play into his game and just stay in there and trade with him and most fighters would be an idiot to try that with him. Machida did what he does best. Stay elusive and wait for his shots. Was it the most exciting thing? ofcourse not, but thats one of the few ways to catch Henderson off his game as norcalmatt was saying. plus like trigg stated as well henderson has world class wrestling behind him and if you were a over nightt mma fan of a few years ago you probably wouldnt even have any idea he does cause he never goes to it. He just wants the knock out and he needs to except that not all fighters will give him that chance and he needs to go back to his roots.

Exactly the reason I didn't even watch the fight. You could've called this one from 10 miles away. I didn't even watch it and I can tell you exactly what happened. Machida defensed his way into a win all the while Henderson was throwing bombs trying to connect with one.

I thought Machida showed some class not going after the knee. That puppy ain't healed and watching TRT Henderson gimp around on it was kinda sad, (only a little cause I hate him).

TRT Hendo doesn't go for the wrestling anymore cause he can't, no matter how much TRT the guy gets hes still dealing with a well used 42 year old body.

I hope he hangs them up before he gets hurt.... no... wait.... I hope he gets hurt BEFORE he hangs em up.

The difference between Machida and TRT Henderson is in the way they treat their KO's. Machida KO's his opponent and backs off... TRT ... well we all saw he did with an obviously unconscious Bisping... nuff said.

I still want to see Jones v Henderson.

Or here's a wild thought... a fighter could IDK... FIGHT! rather than dance and play tag.

But again...now you're talking about fighting to win vs fighting not to lose. Too many fighters now days don't fight to win.

No actually I'm more or less talking about fighting period. On this particular card, Schaub didn't come to fight nor did Machida. I don't blame Schaub so much since he had no other chance of winning. But Machida has all the tools to end fights. He just chooses to dance. When a "fighter" steps in and doesn't engage they should be fined.

It's interesting to watch so many of these fighters that were pegged as "the next big thing in the UFC". Machida was unstoppable when he started making waves...Faber was going to dominated the LW division, Rampage was going to clean up and destroy everyone. All of these guys struggle to get two wins in a row now.

I just think the UFC needs really up the incentives for finishing fights. It's not uncommon for a sport to change rules as the sport evolves to make it less boring.
2 point conversion in football.
Shot clock and 3pt line in basketball.
Lowering the mound in baseball

The UFC has officially become like boxing in the sense that if you are a top 5 guy in any weight class, a loss is just too hurtful (especially now with too many divisions). This is why the free cards are almost always more entertaining.
The UFC needs to figure out a way to get these guys to fight.

Agreed. I know fining isn't allowed in the US... but god damn it! What else could there be aside from guaranteed finish bonus?

A little one sided Chrom .... I didn't see Henderson fighting much either. He couldn't get in, couldn't tag Machida with his ONE weapon, couldn't take him down with his wrestling, couldn' t hold on to him NOTHING.

The key difference here is Machida tagged Henderson and kept TRT outside ..... TRT had NOTHING and he looked like a fool with his vaunted H-Bomb swishing in the air like a Roided up Fairy.

Heh... one more thing

Machida's reduced engagement was a plan.

TRT's was a lack of ability.

But here's the thing;
How can you blame Machida for the way he fought, when he actually employed the perfect gamplan to defeat Henderson? If you look at all the points mentioned here on this very thread -from both sides of the debate- it all adds up to the fact that Machida was actually the smarter, better prepared fighter.
I mean look at the options here:
Was Machida going to take Hendo down and control him? No, Hendo is a world class wrestler.

Was Machida going to KO him? No, Hendo has one of the best chins in the game.

Was Machida going to stand in the pocket and trade shots with him? No, the only weapon Hendo chooses to arm himself with is the H-bomb, and the only way he can win with that is in a close-quarters firefight.

If you can't blame Schaub for fighting the way he did because it was his only chance of winning, how can you blame Machida for doing the exact same thing?


Furthermore, it's not like Machida has NEVER finished a fight and it's not like Machida NEVER engages and it's not like Machida has NEVER been punched and finished before.

No, this is 100% pure sour grapes on Hendo's part, and he has no one to blame but himself. Machida came in with the perfect gameplan to win this fight. Clearly, you can't say the same about Henderson. His only chance of winning this fight was if Machida walked right up to him and started a bar-brawl with him, and that's his own fault.

Ok so what happens when some one chooses not to play "The Machida Game" ?


Answer, NOTHING! Nothing at all will happen. Hendo stopped playing for about a minute in that fight and they literally just bounced around for a whole minute. I fully understand what you are saying as per "Dan should have cut off the cage, or did more." But doesn't it take two men to fight?

Is this really what we want MMA to be?
I say no... not at all.

Then maybe Hendo should have taken him down.... or controlled the pace..... or landed the quicker punches.

Now why didn't he do any of those things? I'll tell you why; because he couldn't. Because Machida is simply a better fighter than Henderson.

What's the first thing you always hear when a fighter gets continuously taken down and controlled by a superior wrestler and then complains about it afterwards? It always comes back to "If you don't like it, figure out a way to stop it". Well, that applies universally, not just to wrestlers.

If you don't like the way Machida is beating you, stop complaining and do something about it.

^^^^word!

Triggerman99 wrote:

Then maybe Hendo should have taken him down.... or controlled the pace..... or landed the quicker punches.

Now why didn't he do any of those things? I'll tell you why; because he couldn't. Because Machida is simply a better fighter than Henderson.

What's the first thing you always hear when a fighter gets continuously taken down and controlled by a superior wrestler and then complains about it afterwards? It always comes back to "If you don't like it, figure out a way to stop it". Well, that applies universally, not just to wrestlers.

If you don't like the way Machida is beating you, stop complaining and do something about it.

+1 I hate whenver a fighter is getting dominated and he just puts his hands up, like do something, no you do something.

Chrom wrote:

Ok so what happens when some one chooses not to play "The Machida Game" ?


Answer, NOTHING! Nothing at all will happen. Hendo stopped playing for about a minute in that fight and they literally just bounced around for a whole minute. I fully understand what you are saying as per "Dan should have cut off the cage, or did more." But doesn't it take two men to fight?

Is this really what we want MMA to be?
I say no... not at all.

This is the key point here.
Aside from the Machida fight, you have two guys "fighting" each other with the same safe (solid) game plan to throw counters and never move forward.
Well, someone has to throw the first punch right? Someone has to come forward eventually, right? Now suddenly, the aggressor (or in my words, the person choosing to fight) just plays into (in Trigger/Krieger's words) the other fighter's perfect game plan.

Just saying, I don't want MMA to become this. At least Schaub was constantly going for the finish and trying to pass gaurd... constantly coming forward with takedowns. As shitty as that fight was, it was a million times better than the Machida/Henderson fight.

Edit: Just to be clear, I am not sticking up for Henderson here. I think he's done and should move on. I am only questioning the gameplan of "not losing".

Thank to fuck! At least one person see's what I'm trying to say here. I was starting to question my reality....

But yeah, lets all just be happy that there is only 1 Machida in the UFC.