Shogun needed to get those 5 rds vs another great fighter under his belt, I expect him to fully back to his best in his next fight. I`ll need to watch it again & score it sober this time, I remember thinking Rua could have easily got the decision.... great fight & I enjoyed it very much even tho one of my two favourite fighters lost on points (the other fav fighter is Nick Diaz)
Not if you understand how the Unified Rules scoring system works you can't. One must totally dominate or nearly finish the opponent to earn a 10-8. Henderson nearly punched Rua through the mat in the third, so that's worthy of a 10-8. Henderson was completely positionally dominated and punched incessantly in the fifth, therefore the round can be scored a 10-8. The fourth round, on the other hand was fairly even with Hendo dictating the first half of the stanza with top control and some vicious GnP and Shogun returning fire with the hard uppercut and mount at the end. Both guys were hurt but the uppercut hurt Henderson worse than his diving punches hurt Rua, therefore I gave a tight round 10-9 to Rua.
I suggest that you watch the fight again. Henderson was winning the first three minutes of that round before Shogun rocked him with that uppercut. Henderson swept Shogun on the ground twice, took him down once and landed some nice GnP. If anything, that's arguably an even round. After re-watching the fight, I'm not even sure that I'm willing to entertain the notion that it should have been a draw anymore. The last round jaded my perception of how well Shogun did overall. Henderson was in control for 18 of the 25 minutes and he came much closer to finishing. IMO he deserves the win.
No, a dude getting rocked with a shot that doesn't even put him on his ass and then taken down and mounted isn't nearly finished. Getting flatlined and then set upon with a barrage of punches that has you turtling and inert as was seen in the third is nearly finished. If the ref had stepped in while Hendo was pounding the prone and turtling Shogun not too many people, minus Shogun's hardcore dickriders, would have been upset. If the ref had stepped in while Dan was simply mounted and hit with exhausted arm punches in the fourth, there would have been outrage.
No, Shogun did. He finished the round on his back after Henderson swept him and had to be helped to his feet and back to cageside by Stitch Duran. Henderson didn't even get dropped by the biggest strike that Shogun landed in the round. Like I wrote in my other post; you should probably re-watch the fight.
I like the idea of Henderson-Leben, although think for both men it would be better at 205Ibs. Don't think its the right time now as Henderson is the hunt for a title shot at light heavyweight. Personally I'd give him the next title shot and then feed someone like Forrest or Jackson to Evans. To paraphrase Big Bob Arum, let's let that Evans fight marinate for awhile
The NatGeo or Discovery channel should revisint the MMA Fight Science episode, and try to gauge Dan's H-Bomb. Surely that will trump the puny elbow shot gauged by Tito. That thing barely cracked past 200 psi.
i had dan winning which from the post is correct bc no ones saying hua shogun won. only calling a draw dan did 5 times the damage that shogun did he deserved the decision. mma hour said henderson had a cold is why he gassed i though he punched himself out trying 3 times to finish
This was a fight that you couldn`t say `that guy definitely won`.... this is why I liked PRIDE rules because you judge the fight as an entirety & the breaks between rounds are nothing more than rest periods for the fighters & unless there is a clear winner, they go for an extra 5min round to determine a winner.