PART 6
Believe me when I say this. No one on earth is as tough as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. If he were a solider and happened to get caught behind enemy lines you might as well just kill him. If not you’ll die of fatigue trying to get information out of him. Nogueira has beat people standing up, he has devastated people on the ground. He has fought with injuries and illnesses that all of us wouldn’t even get out of bed with yet he went and fought with. His win over Bob Sapp is the stuff of legend. This wasn’t the fight for money Bob Sapp. This was the beat Ernesto Hoost twice Bob Sapp.
His fight with Cro Cop should somehow be made into a motivational speech. As great as he is, he unfortunately is not untouchable. The damage he sustains when he wins and loses is what keeps him in nail biting fights, but also don’t show the same level of dominance that other fighters in his weight have shown. Is he the absolute toughest fighter to ever walk. Yes. Undoubtedly he wins that category. No one can argue that, but two crushing loses to Fedor (I thought he was going to win the second fight with Fedor, technically he did, they just ruled it a no contest for some reason.) Nogueira is certainly one of the most inspirational and unbreakable athlete’s walking.
Taking on all fights, putting up a challenge to anyone. Him in his prime, when he fought the Extremely Dangerous heath Herring, the same Heath Herring that beat the extremely underrated and never talked about Tom Erikson. He fought Heath at his own game and stopped him at every pass. He had another match with Heath where you could see just how much better Norueira had gotten as he submitted Herring with little effort with the at the time unheard of, anaconda choke. he may have taken a pounding in a lot of his victories but when he showed in pride and Triangle choked/armbarred and out boxed Mark Coleman, who at the time was the 2000 GP Champion he gave everyone a simple message. “Don’t f*ck with me.”While Fedor did beat him when they were both in their primes, there was never any moment of quite in him.
Minotauro at any moment could beat anyone walking. His recent win over Schuab I thought was amazing. He was slower and plodding, but moved his body and struck with the same work rate that a boxer half his size uses. His head movement and counter punching showed that he may be an old dog (fight wise) but he can easily learn new tricks. Taking out Schuab gives a lot of hope to see him in the future. He out struck and outworked a young super heavy weight nicknamed “The Hybrid.” He was never in trouble, rolled with the punches and left the younger fighter regretting everything he had ever said about beating Minitauro.
Dan Henderson is the toughest man on the planet. Even Anderson Silva worked at McDonalds, Matt Hughes worked on a far. Matt Lindland sold cars and Chael Sonnen real estate, but Henderson is so tough he’s never held an actual job real 9 to 5 job. He wrestled, he has fought. And that’s his resume. He offers very little sparkle to his personality. He works hard, he fights hard and that’s it. He doesn’t talk much, he doesn’t sell fights by running his mouth, he’s similar to that cool uncle you don’t see much but gives you good advice. Because of his demeanor he slides under the radar in terms of marketing. It wasn’t until they slapped an American flag on all of his gear that he became marketable.
Prior to that they were calling him “Hollywood”, and I’m still not sure why they did that. While some people would like to see Randy Couture over Henderson as both of them have never had an easy fight. I choose Henderson because he never achieved the fame that Couture has. Yet he still soldiered on and done more. Randy Couture is great and no one can take that away from him. But he falls under the umbrella of great fighters who fought in an organization that plays favorites with wrestlers. Henderson was shooting for take down’s on people and nearly getting his face kicked off had he missed.
While the spot lights were on his friends, Henderson was in the background silently crushing his opposition. Dan Henderson is made of the kind of tough you can’t teach. He is also responsible for forming one of the greatest American teams that went on to actually make the careers of Couture and Lindland when they were all in the warehouse of a car lot at Team Quest. The first time he fought Vanderlie most people would have lost in that first minute. Actually most people did. He fought through it. He fought in weight classes both up and down the ladder. Never getting a break in any of them. His loss to Jake Shields is a peculiar one, he damn near killed him in the first round and then just gave up fighting (gassed out like never before) in the last 4 rounds. People wanted to write him off, but in the next three fights he actually looked better and had better cardiovascular conditioning than he did when he was an Olympic Wrestler.
Henderson will always be the guy that is a nightmare for anyone because he is the object you can’t break. He’s the guy who is finding new ways to end fights as we speak. For the longest time he just wailed on people and swarmed them until he finished you. Then he found out he could cripple you with his right hand, fighting Vanderlie the second time he found out that he can knock you out with his left hand just as well. If he ever throws a high kick people should retire until he leaves the sport. When Henderson is on he can beat anyone. He just proved that in not backing down in his all out fist fight with Fedor. He fought Big Nog twice when Nog was one of the best heavy weights in the world.
He beat the crap out of Anderson Silva for one hot round. Again, gassing and dying. Dan Henderson has constantly racketed his career a little higher with each fight and has been fighting the toughest of competition for darn near his entire career. He fights with the best at 185, 205 and 206 and up. Outside of gassing you’d be hard pressed to find a fight where he was outclassed. Dan Henderson embodies everything that makes a great fighter. Unbreakable will, power in every limb and the ability to nullify you at any moment. He derailed Vitor Belforts come back, he ate cheesecake none stop so that he could get heavy enough to fight Quinton Jackson and put up a great fight with a much heavier man.
Figuring Jackson was cutting from 240+ and was 230 at fight time. While Dan has little set backs here and there, he bounces back better each time. For every one set back he’s had, he came back twice as strong. Few people can say they’ve had as many high points as he has had in his career. Anyone who beats him should write an apology letter to whoever his next opponent is. His lost to Kazuo Misaki is the only questionable lose on his record and I’m going to go so far as to cry foul on that fight. That fight aside, anyone from 185 and up can lose to Dan Henderson on any given night. Few other fighters can say they’ve beat great fighters in those 3 weight classes.
