Sherdog’s Top 10: Most Durable Fighters

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3. Dan Henderson

Prior to his most recent outings, Henderson’s chin had never been cracked. He had been knocked down, sure, but never all the way out, and he had always recovered quickly enough that the referee let him go.

It felt like the end of an era when Vitor Belfort’s shin met Henderson’s dome as he attempted to stand up from a previous knockdown in their November 2013 rematch. Referee Dan Miragliotta called a stop to the fight, and Henderson had officially been knocked out. Mauricio Rua dropped him twice more in his next fight, and only the combination of tremendous skill and sheer luck allowed “Hendo” to sneak in a fight-ending right hand. Gegard Mousasi put down Henderson again only a few weeks ago, and if it was not clear before that his capacity to absorb damage was largely gone, it should be now.

For a long, long time, however, Henderson was one of the most durable and resilient fighters in the history of the sport. He went the distance with fighters like Gilbert Yvel, Wanderlei Silva, Murilo Rua, Belfort and Quinton Jackson. He traded shots in the pocket with “Shogun” Rua in their first meeting, put Rafael Cavalcante to sleep and withstood the brutal punches of Fedor Emelianenko. Toughness was Henderson’s defining quality, and it allowed him to put his thunderous right hand on target more often than not.

If not for the inevitable lapses at the tail end of his career, Henderson might be the top entry on this list, and he still has a better claim than most.

Number 2 » At the end of the day, he simply seems to want it more than his opponents, and that never-say-die attitude has been at the heart of his most iconic victories.