A week after UFC on Fox 1 made history, UFC 139 was a bit of a forgotten pay per view. The rest of the year has the UFC’s biggest draw to close it out, and its youngest champion shortly before, and thus this card felt more of a novelty than anything else. For new fans tuning after watching Cain Velasquez get finished by Junior Dos Santos in dramatic fashion, UFC 139 couldn’t have been a better introduction to fans just tuning into the sport. And with a card of terrific fights to start, it was capped off by the fight of the year that deserves a rematch as soon as both men can compete. Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua deserve that much after 25 minutes of blood, sweat and determination that gave us an agreeable result but not a perfect one. Why?
It’s the only way we can really determine a winner.
The fight itself was a classic story told over three acts. In the first 10 minutes, Dan Henderson looked like the fighter of old that terrorized Pride and proved to be a two division nightmare matchup. From the third on, Rua managed to survive that early storm and capture the final two rounds definitively. One could argue that Henderson won a 10-8 round in the second in the same way that Rua could be given the same result for the fifth frame. The first and last two rounds were definitive in who won them; how one scored the third is who is generally given the victory. In such a close fight that round proved pivotal and it was so close that it’s really hard to really give it to one fighter or the other in convincing fashion.
Too many questions remain for a fight that Dana White immediately called MMA’s version of Ali-Frazier 3. Both fighters being taken to the hospital immediately afterward gave credence to how much it took out of both of them as well; it’s easy to think that this war of attrition will wind up taking time off the end of both men’s careers the same way the “Thrilla in Manilla” seemed to do to those two men. After such a war, and no clear victor, a rematch has to happen.
This was a fight that was supposed to have major title implications, hence the five round format, and you can’t reasonably argue that Dan Henderson deserves a title shot based on this fight. There isn’t any controversy involving it, obviously, but the fight was so close that Henderson-Rua 2 makes more sense if only to give us resolution to the issue.
Henderson hasn’t shown in this fight that he deserves to cut in line of Rashad Evans for a title shot against the Machida/Jones winner, which he could’ve conceivably done with a strong win. Rua showed an insane level of heart to come back and finish like he did; for someone who hadn’t answered issues surrounding his knees against Forrest Griffin a short while ago despite a resounding victory no one can think he isn’t as close to 100% as he ever will be.
With people arguing convincingly that Rua won, or that Henderson won or even that it was a draw the consensus has to be one thing: a rematch. Nothing else can and will do in this case. We need a clear winner in all of this and while a second bout most likely can’t match the majestic nature of this one, it needs to happen if only for closure.
Whoever wins between the two ought to get a championship fight once the dust settle between Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans. Right now we just don’t have a clear winner despite Dan Henderson’s hand being raised.
