Dan Henderson vs Vitor Belfort 2? Yes. According to UFC Tonight, the UFC has decided to slate this one for November 9th. For those of you who might not be aware, these two old/young dinosauric-lions squared off in the Pride FC ring once upon a time, except it didn’t really feel like a Pride FC match because the unified rules were in effect due to the fight taking place at one of those USA shows.
The match was basically Dan Henderson going all Olympic wrestling(save it!) on Belfort for three rounds.
While I usually dig “legends matches” (I even bought UFC 109), this one really strikes me as strange. Not because, I think it will be uncompetitive, but because there were so many matches to be made with both Belfort and Henderson. Lyoto wanted a piece of Belfort and let’s not forget the American Gangster that is Chael Sonnen. As far as Hendo, he’ll basically fight anyone but he’s coming off two straight losses which makes this fight all the more questionable.
This feels like when a TV show that was only okay in its original run gets another crack at a season years later, *cough* Arrested Development *cough*. I mean sure the Netflix season wasn’t the worst thing I’ve watched on Netflix, but it was far from fantastic — mostly because it felt like it was shot with a camcorder. Ariel Helwani has more professional camera work for his YouTube interviews.
I can’t help but feel like this match-up of two UFC/Pride stalwarts will suffer the same fate of giving fans a nostalgic sensation leading up to the fight, followed by an inevitable let down when these two elder MMA statesmen put on a lesser version of what we saw before.
Although, Belfort has been looking spectacular lately, especially in Brazil, so maybe he’ll finally crack Hendo’s legendary chin. Or maybe Hendo will decide to throw punches with Belfort this time instead of repeatedly taking him down.
On November 9th, we’ll all watch to see what happens when the H-Bomb has this run in with the Young Dinosaur. I just hope it’s better than a crappy reboot shot with a camcorder.
