How a classic fight between Bisping and Henderson distilled 2 long careers into 25 minutes of bloody fun

Like a couple of classic rock bands on an endless tour, Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson both showed up at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England, and proceeded to play their greatest hits in Saturday’s UFC 204 main event.

For Henderson (32-15 MMA, 9-9 UFC), that meant slowly circling with his body in a tight coil, waiting for a chance to spring that righthand equalizer. It also meant the old suffocating hand-over-the-mouth big brother move that’s long been a staple of his ground game. Because hey, even The Rolling Stones have their B-sides.

For Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) it meant an attempt at domination through accumulation. The steady drip, drip drip of his jab. The quick kicks slapping out at the head and body, performed with all the effort of a flick of the wrist.

And, of course, a couple kicks to the groin, the second of which gave him time to mug for the crowd, acting the role of the aggrieved party when he had to wait for Henderson’s reproductive organs to come down out of his stomach.

In the end, Bisping’s hits were just a little bit greater – at least according to the judges who awarded him a unanimous decision victory. In a war in which Bisping won more of the battles and Henderson dropped the more significant bombs, the scorecards favored the man who had more of this fight’s time on his side.

Henderson’s offense came in two violent spasms – at the end of Rounds 1 and 2. The effort required in those brief bursts was sufficiently taxing that he took the third and the fourth to recover, before pulling it together enough to make it close in the fifth.

Bisping’s offense was more like a flowing mountain stream. The waters never threatened to go rampaging over the banks, wreaking havoc on the locals, but they also never really stopped, even when he could barely see through the blood and the swelling.

So now Bisping not only stays the champ, but becomes the winningest fighter in UFC history. Henderson gets one last bitter pill to swallow on his way to retirement, but he also gets to go out on a fight that, in all honesty, was far better than it had any right to be.

Which is fitting, when you think about it, since that description also applies to the 46-year-old Henderson himself.

Watching the way that man moved around the cage at times, you wondered how his whole skeletal system doesn’t fall apart with one good whack. The way he lumbered and lunged in and out of striking exchanges, it was like watching a man try to build up enough momentum to get himself out of the recliner. He still brings to mind a tank, but these days it’s because turning his head to look to one side is a complex operation, and one performed with a slow but inevitable determination.

But then he’ll have one of those moments when the right hand lands and a body hits the floor and you can watch as his eyes get big as dinner plates. The reserve engines fire and, for a few brief moments, he’s like a spry 37-year-old again, all windmilling arms and open-mouthed enthusiasm.

What kept Henderson from his finish and his storybook ending was the sheer stubbornness of Bisping.

Remember how he used to tell us he’d be UFC champion some day? Remember how absolutely precious that seemed, coming from the guy who’d lost every contender fight he’d been in? Somehow it never seemed to rattle his faith, even as he crept toward middle-age and the battle wounds piled up.

For all his physical abilities, Bisping’s greatest assets may be his unshakable belief in himself and his inability to admit defeat. For years those qualities made him the buzzing gnat of the middleweight division, always right there in your ear but never getting firmly and finally squashed. Then he made the most of his shot at the belt and, against all odds, he became champion.

After everything he went through to get that belt, you didn’t think he was going to let it go that easily, did you? What, because Henderson’s right hand offered him a seat on the floor? Because his face got lumpy and his vision pinched shut behind a bulb of fluid and tissue? He spent his whole career preparing for those moments. That’s how he knows he’s at work.

And when he offered a scathing post-fight critique of the middleweight contenders on his way to the hospital, well, wasn’t that just so Bisping?

That’s what made this such a fitting send-off for Henderson, and a fitting first title defense for Bisping. Those five rounds captured the essence of each man’s career and character, and distilled it down to a half-hour’s worth of bloody entertainment.

And come on, were you not entertained? Didn’t they give you everything they had, such as it was? Haven’t they always, far past the point of reasonable expectation and basic good sense?

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