Q&A: Dan Henderson on respect for Bisping, the importance of UFC title

After a lifetime in combat sports, there isn't much left for Dan Henderson to prove.

This Saturday, the 46-year-old MMA legend will compete in what's expected to be his final fight when he challenges Michael Bisping for the UFC middleweight championship at UFC 204 in Manchester, England. Win or lose, Henderson has vowed that his 47th professional bout will be his last.

From Olympic wrestler to world champion fighter to elder statesman, Henderson has accomplished everything short of capturing a UFC title.

"Hendo" recently spoke to theScore about his role as a pioneer in the sport and his thoughts on the most important fight of his 19-year career.

Do you remember your first professional MMA fight?

Yes, I do. It was in Brazil and I had trained for about two weeks for it. I didn't know a lot about MMA or jiu-jitsu or submissions or anything, I was just a wrestler. Coming into the sport, the way it was back then, I was capable of doing that. Nowadays, everybody knows everything and it probably wouldn't have been as good a finish as I had. It was two fights in the night, so I won both of those, but it would have been tough to do that in today's day and age with the way it is.

Was MMA always in the cards for you?

I was actually accepted to go to chiropractic school and decided to keep wrestling for another four years to make another Olympic team and put school off. And then I started fighting about a year later, then never thought twice about going back to school. So I'd rather be fighting than going to school for five years.

Is there any added pressure going into the biggest fight of your career?

I don't know if it's the biggest fight of my career, but right now at this moment it is the most important fight of my career. It's the last fight and everybody wants to go out with a win, and to be able to go out with a win plus the belt would be spectacular.

No, I don't have any extra pressure. I feel great. Just like any fight I'm focused on what I need to do and what I need to accomplish during the fight to win it.

Where would a UFC title win rank among your other achievements?

I'd probably have to rank it right up on top because winning the PRIDE belts, even two belts at the same time, was huge and it still is huge, but I think at that time there was still a question of which organization had the best fighters in the world, the UFC or PRIDE, and right now in today's MMA world there's only one organization that is the top dog and that's the UFC. So to have that belt right now, there's no question that you're the top dog in the world.

After having fought a second time, will you and Bisping be buddies?

I don't know if I'll be sharing drinks with him, but I've always respected him as a fighter for sure, and in some ways as a person as well. Obviously, he's not a guy that I tend to hang out with, those kinds of guys that talk a lot like that, but I respect that he's always how he is, he doesn't act like he's two different people, one person for the camera and one person the way he always is.

He's the same guy all the time and he's not fake in any way, so I respect guys that are able to do that and get all that media attention just by being themselves even though he's kind of an asshole all the time. At least he owns it.

Should you win and the titles are vacated, who would you like to see compete next?

Most of the guys have a fight scheduled that are the top guys in that weight so probably two of the winners from those, or possibly one of those winners against Bisping after I beat him. It's one of those things where I kind of cut and run and I'll cut right back out and they can have Bisping when I'm done with him.

Will you come back if the UFC creates the perfect situation for you?

I don't know. I'm sure they could possibly give me some sort of offer that I couldn't refuse, but I honestly am perfectly content with this being my last fight and I would like it to be. I don't want to say that I'm retiring five times. This is the time where I said that I'm definitely done and I mean it and deep down in my heart that's what my plan is.

What would you say to any fighters, wrestlers, or athletes who consider you to be their hero?

It's one of those things where when I started this sport there wasn't really anybody that stood out very much and I've been doing it a long time, since the beginning. I guess it makes me feel a little bit old to know that a lot of these guys looked up to me when they were younger and then started fighting and consider me as their hero.

Obviously, it's an honor to have that presentation as someone's hero, but I don't give it too much thought, I just try to be the best person I can be and be the best fighter I can be and hopefully that inspires people in a good way.