Dan Henderson: “(Lyoto Machida) Did a Good Job Not Fighting”
Dan Henderson felt he did enough to get the decision nod against Lyoto Machida in the co-main event of UFC 157: Rousey vs. Carmouche on Saturday. Ultimately, he lost to Machida by split decision.
“In my mind, I thought I did enough to win the fight, but it was my fault. I don’t place the blame on the judges. I should have been a little bit more aggressive. I let him fight his fight a little too much,” said Henderson during the post-fight press conference.
Machida frustrated Henderson with his counter-punch style and elusive movement. The fight didn’t play out as Henderson envisioned.
“I apologize for that. Normally that’s not my type of fight, a little bit boring. He did a good job moving around and was real hard to hit. I needed to stay in his face and cut him off a little bit better and make him fight. He did a good job not fighting, just picking and choosing when he threw some strikes,” said Henderson.
“He did a good job moving and I shouldn’t have let the judges decide that fight.”
The frustrating loss only serves as motivation. Henderson wants to stay active throughout 2013 and believes he has more to accomplish in the sport.
“Obviously, I’m bummed out. I wasn’t planning on losing, and I’m not by any means done. I still have goals that I want to reach in this sport. I want to fight as soon as I can. I’m ready to go in June or July. I didn’t have the best last few months, but I feel a lot better now and I want to be real active this next year. That much time off is never good. I don’t want that to happen again. I’m getting a little old,” he said.
Henderson is 42 years old and the window of opportunity to cap off his already Hall of Fame worthy career with a UFC title is quickly closing.
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