Dan Henderson to Coach Team USA on "The Ultimate Fighter"
Today, the Ultimate Fighting Championship organization held their first pay-per-view show in Dublin, Ireland. The UFC 93 event took place at the O2 Arena.
In the main event, light heavyweight fighters, Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson, faced off to determine who will be the coach of Team USA on the next season of SpikeTV reality series, The Ultimate Fighter.
Going into the fight, Henderson and Franklin were both former champions. Rich Franklin was a former UFC Middleweight Champion before losing the belt to Anderson Silva in 2006. Franklin was also a coach for the second season of The Ultimate Fighter where his team faced off against a team led by former UFC Welterweight Champion, Matt Hughes. Dan Henderson was a former Pride FC Welterweight and Middleweight Champion before arriving into the UFC in 2007. Henderson is the first man in the history of MMA to hold two different titles in two separate weight classes at the same time.
The next fighter for this opportunity will be UFC Lightweight Champion, BJ Penn, who will be taking on his rival current UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre, at UFC 94 on January 31.
Henderson and Franklin went through all three of their five-minute rounds in their fight. The judges ultimately ruled a split decision in favor of Henderson.
In his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Henderson stated, "I think I had him hurt there for a little bit, but I think he had enough experience to stay calm. . . . I felt like I definitely won the first two rounds. Third round he did well. I probably would have gave that one to him, but 30-27 for him was a little off."
The format of season 9 of The Ultimate Fighter will be a British U.K. team coached by UFC middleweight fighter, Michael Bisping. Henderson will coach the opposing U.S. team in a UK vs. USA format. Michael Bisping won the light heavyweight tournament for the third season of The Ultimate Fighter in 2006.
Following the end of the upcoming season of TUF, the winner would more than likely be in line for a UFC Middleweight title shot, a belt still currently held by Anderson "The Spider" Silva. Silva previously defeated Henderson via submission at UFC 82 last year.
Henderson expressed keen interest in being the coach for the reality television series before his contest in the Octagon with Franklin.
In an interview with MMAJunkie.com, Henderson said, "I really like the format. Being on the Olympic team a couple of times, being able to coach country vs. country is a little bit different. I'm excited about that as well. . . . The coaches pretty much are out of most of those antics that go on at the house. . . . I'm only concerned with what happens at the training center and with training. . . . The rest is all for the TV show, I guess. I'm excited that I know we're probably going to beat up the U.K. guys. . . . [The U.K.] are getting better as a country in MMA. They're slowly getting better as a country. They're behind us a little bit. . . . And the show hasn't always been about the best fighters. It's about which guys are going to make the show better or more exciting. There will be a challenge in that way. We're not going to have the best U.S. guys out there."