JRE MMA Show #149 with Dan Henderson

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. DHDan Henderson0:00

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

   2. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Hello, Dan Henderson. What the fuck's happening?

   3. DHDan Henderson0:15

      (laughs) How's it going, Joe?

   4. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      Good to see you, bro.

   5. DHDan Henderson0:16

      Good to see you too.

   6. JRJoe Rogan0:17

      Man, um, what have you been up to? Other than coaching? You're coaching a lot, I know that.

   7. DHDan Henderson0:22

      Uh...

   8. JRJoe Rogan0:22

      I watch a lot of your, uh, videos.

   9. DHDan Henderson0:23

      Yeah, I mean, I'm coaching a little bit. Got, got some decent up-and-comers, but other than that, I've been, I've been working on (laughs) a project where my gy- I own the building my gym's in, and I'm putting a brewery distillery restaurant in.

   10. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Oh, nice.

   11. DHDan Henderson0:36

       Part of it'll overlook there. So we're in mid-construction right now, so it's been, it's been... We started construction, it got put on hold when COVID happened-

   12. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       Hmm.

   13. DHDan Henderson0:46

       ... so it's been a, almost the biggest fight of my life trying to get this thing done. But yeah, it's finally, finally gonna be done, hopefully end of the year.

   14. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       You're down in, uh, you still down, like, Temecula area?

   15. DHDan Henderson0:57

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan0:57

       Yeah.

   17. DHDan Henderson0:58

       In Temecula, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan0:59

       That's a good area.

   19. DHDan Henderson1:00

       No, I love it there, man.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       Last time I saw you was at that casino. That's a fun little casino down there.

   21. DHDan Henderson1:04

       Oh, at Pechanga?

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:05

       Yeah.

   23. DHDan Henderson1:05

       Yeah. Yeah, no, I love it out there. If, I, I was born and raised in California, so it, you know, it'd be hard to leave. I got so many roots there, but, you know-

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:16

       Yeah.

   25. DHDan Henderson1:16

       ... living in Temecula, I feel like I'm in one of the best spots in California. (laughs)

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:20

       Yeah, it's one of the be- it's most sane.

   27. DHDan Henderson1:23

       Yeah, no, I agree.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:24

       It's pretty sane.

   29. DHDan Henderson1:25

       Yeah, pretty-

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:26

       Lot of ranches, and it's like normal people.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   Hmm. …

   1. DHDan Henderson15:00

      after that fight. No, not that one, but the one I ... down in Brazil, which was ... I think it was UFC 13, was his first one.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:08

      Hmm.

   3. DHDan Henderson15:10

      And, uh, he-

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:11

      Yeah, I was there for that too.

   5. DHDan Henderson15:12

      And he had a, a tournament against the, like, two big heavyweights.

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:16

      Yeah. He fought some big, muscular guy the first fight-

   7. DHDan Henderson15:19

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:19

      ... who had a lot of hype on him. I don't remember who he fought in his second fight. I don't remember. But that was, like, when we first started seeing elite wrestlers.

   9. DHDan Henderson15:29

      Right.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:30

       First started seeing a guy ... Royce Alger, you know, Coleman, all those o- o-

   11. DHDan Henderson15:34

       Didn't ... Did Kenny Monday fight in the UFC, or did he-

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:38

       Yes.

   13. DHDan Henderson15:39

       Yeah?

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:39

       Yeah. Kenny Mon ... No. Was it Kevin Jackson?

   15. DHDan Henderson15:42

       Kevin Jackson.

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:42

       Kenny, Kenny Monday fought, uh ... He fought submission. I remember Matt Hume submitted him.

   17. DHDan Henderson15:50

       Oh, yeah, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       Remember that?

   19. DHDan Henderson15:51

       That was ... I, I think I s- I wrestled with, uh, Frank Shamrock there.

   20. JRJoe Rogan15:54

       That's right. Yeah.

   21. DHDan Henderson15:55

       And I had, I had a screwed up ankle from I'd rolled it, uh, right before the world championships a month before that, and ... So I went in there wearing wrestling shoes so I could hide the tape that I had on my ankle. (laughs) Frank's pretty good at ankle locks, so ... (laughs)

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:11

       Yeah.

   23. DHDan Henderson16:11

       That was me not knowing anything about it.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       Well, Frank was really one of the first guys that had, like, a full overall MMA game.

   25. DHDan Henderson16:19

       Right. No, I agree.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:20

       He really did. He had a ... I mean, when he w- submitted Kevin Jackson, like, very impressive. He could f- submit you off his back, he had crazy cardio, full range of skills. He could strike, he could grapple, he could do everything.

   27. DHDan Henderson16:33

       Right.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:33

       And the cardio. He was, like, one of the first guys that showed, like, cardio could be a weapon. Like, the Tito Ortiz fight. You know? His cardio was a real weapon.

   29. DHDan Henderson16:41

       Oh, for sure. And Tito's usually in pretty good shape too.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:43

       Yeah. Well, Tito learned from that fight. I mean, I think that was a, a big wake-up call for him-
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   And so you're supporting…

   1. DHDan Henderson30:00

      my lead knee.

   2. JRJoe Rogan30:00

      And so you're supporting on it. You already threw a kick, so you're trusting it. Do you just not think about it once you're in there?

   3. DHDan Henderson30:06

      No. Yeah. I, I mean, I wa- I was, I was hiking, like, ten miles a day for about four days before they tracked me down up, up in Colorado, so...

   4. JRJoe Rogan30:15

      That's crazy too.

   5. DHDan Henderson30:17

      Luckily, I was, you know... But I was also drinking beer every day.

   6. JRJoe Rogan30:21

      Well, that doesn't get you in shape though.

   7. DHDan Henderson30:24

      (laughs)

   8. JRJoe Rogan30:24

      (laughs) The- the beer doesn't, but the, uh, the hiking 10 miles a day in the mountains, that's actually probably pretty good for your fucking endurance, you know? Oh, there it is. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. That's it. That must have been so, such a relief to take a fight like that two and a half months after surgery.

   9. DHDan Henderson30:45

      Yeah, no, it was definitely (laughs) a good moment, for sure. I was a little nervous about it 'cause he's a tough dude.

   10. JRJoe Rogan30:51

       Yeah, very tough dude. Very tough dude.

   11. DHDan Henderson30:53

       The- the- the funniest thing about that, you know, the one week that I had at home training, I, uh, threw like a- a wide left hook and dislocated my thumb, and it- it popped out. You can see it, still screwed up now. But when I got there, I'm like, "Hey, can- can I get a- a shot to numb my thumb before the fight?" 'Cause they can do that there, they don't let you do it here, but-

   12. JRJoe Rogan31:19

       Right.

   13. DHDan Henderson31:20

       And they're like, "Yeah, but you gotta go to the doctor. They'll X-ray you so..." You know, so I went in there and they got one of those things you can see the... They took an X-ray of me doing this, there was nothing wrong, and then I'm like, but it... They had the X-ray machine where you can see the bones move and it just so weird how the bone just comes right... The ligament is gone.

   14. JRJoe Rogan31:37

       Oh.

   15. DHDan Henderson31:37

       So, I-

   16. JRJoe Rogan31:38

       Is it still gone?

   17. DHDan Henderson31:39

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan31:40

       It's just torn off?

   19. DHDan Henderson31:41

       I'll never be able to... It... Yeah, I just... It... By that time, it... I just taped it for about a year and then it was good.

   20. JRJoe Rogan31:46

       (laughs)

   21. DHDan Henderson31:48

       But- but my other thumb got jammed in the fight, like when I was trying to finish him, it must have got jam... And my- my whole thumb was so swollen, so I couldn't even wipe my ass, I couldn't take my pants off.

   22. JRJoe Rogan32:02

       (exhales)

   23. DHDan Henderson32:02

       I had no thumbs for like a week.

   24. JRJoe Rogan32:04

       So both thumbs were fucked up.

   25. DHDan Henderson32:05

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan32:06

       (laughs) God.

   27. DHDan Henderson32:08

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan32:09

       Wow.

   29. DHDan Henderson32:09

       But yeah, that was the funny part about that.

   30. JRJoe Rogan32:12

       The PRIDE days were so wild because... Did you... When- when- when you were under contract with PRIDE, did you just, like when an event was coming up, just prepare like you were probably gonna fight in the event? 'Cause they didn't contact anybody until like a couple weeks out.
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   Mm-hmm. …

   1. DHDan Henderson45:00

      competing up there." But everybody's always mentally afraid-

   2. JRJoe Rogan45:04

      Mm-hmm.

   3. DHDan Henderson45:04

      ... to be against the bigger guys.

   4. JRJoe Rogan45:06

      Yeah. He's a different fighter at 185 than he was at 170.

   5. DHDan Henderson45:08

      Right.

   6. JRJoe Rogan45:08

      At 170 you could see he was compromised, just like-

   7. DHDan Henderson45:11

      Right.

   8. JRJoe Rogan45:11

      How... I mean, he had to have cut 25 pounds easy, right?

   9. DHDan Henderson45:15

      Yeah. No, he's big.

   10. JRJoe Rogan45:16

       He's way too big for-

   11. DHDan Henderson45:17

       Right.

   12. JRJoe Rogan45:17

       ... 170. But when you saw his fight with Adesanya, were you shocked?

   13. DHDan Henderson45:22

       I, I only saw parts of that. I didn't see-

   14. JRJoe Rogan45:24

       Really?

   15. DHDan Henderson45:25

       ... the whole thing. I was somewhere else. I didn't get to see it.

   16. JRJoe Rogan45:27

       It's fucking amazing.

   17. DHDan Henderson45:28

       Yeah. No, I, I saw parts of it and, yeah, he, he looked great.

   18. JRJoe Rogan45:32

       He looked fucking amazing. The crazy thing is how good his defense is.

   19. DHDan Henderson45:36

       I thought he would do well against him. I didn't think he'd do well just standing up with him there. I mean, I thought Adesanya would get... Would outpoint him a little bit. Uh, but I thought Sean would take him down and beat the shit out of him if he got on top.

   20. JRJoe Rogan45:51

       Well, that's a lot of people don't realize. Sean has a very good ground game.

   21. DHDan Henderson45:54

       No, very good. Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan45:55

       Very good. He just doesn't use it very often. He's black belt in jujitsu, good wrestling, good takedown defense.

   23. DHDan Henderson46:01

       Right.

   24. JRJoe Rogan46:01

       You know, he's solid everywhere, but he just loves to bang.

   25. DHDan Henderson46:04

       Right.

   26. JRJoe Rogan46:04

       He loves to stay in the front of guys.

   27. DHDan Henderson46:05

       He doesn't have, like, huge power. Uh, he's probably getting better at putting it in better places now, but he wasn't, like... He's not a big knockout guy, but he definitely adds them up and, and really-

   28. JRJoe Rogan46:20

       Yeah.

   29. DHDan Henderson46:20

       He's by far one of the biggest pressure fighters.

   30. JRJoe Rogan46:25

       Yeah.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:13:08

   Yeah. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

   2. DHDan Henderson1:00:00

      Yeah.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:00:00

      Go in that direction.

   4. DHDan Henderson1:00:01

      A lot of investor money.

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:00:02

      Yeah. Listen, the more big organizations, the better, I think, for, for the athletes, for sure. For the fans, for sure. And they have Francis Ngannou. You know, if Francis Ngannou becomes their heavyweight, you know, poster guy, and, you know, he's their heavyweight champion, I mean-

   6. DHDan Henderson1:00:18

      Right.

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:00:18

      ... it could be very interesting if they throw a bunch of money at it.

   8. DHDan Henderson1:00:21

      No, I agree. I, I think it's great for the sport, and-... you know, great for the, the fighters, the athletes. Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:00:27

      Yes. Definitely great for the fighters. The fighters can't just have the UFC. They n- And it's good for the UFC too. Everybody needs competition. You know, the UFC needs the ... And it, it's great for the fighters. If you got the PFL bidding on you, you got One Championship bidding on you, and you got the UFC bidding on you, that's a good place to be.

   10. DHDan Henderson1:00:43

       Oh, for sure.

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:00:44

       If it's only the UFC around, you gotta take what they give you-

   12. DHDan Henderson1:00:47

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan1:00:48

       ... and you know.

   14. DHDan Henderson1:00:48

       I was kinda in that boat for a bit-

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:00:50

       Mm-hmm.

   16. DHDan Henderson1:00:50

       ... when the UFC bought Pride and then-

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:00:52

       Yeah.

   18. DHDan Henderson1:00:53

       ... I was in the UFC again. And then-

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:00:55

       Yeah.

   20. DHDan Henderson1:00:55

       ... Strikeforce came along and-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:00:57

       Yeah.

   22. DHDan Henderson1:00:57

       ... I went there and then they bought (laughs) Strikeforce.

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:00:59

       Yeah. (laughs) That's right. That's right.

   24. DHDan Henderson1:01:00

       That's what I told the press. I said, "Dana is like a stalker. (laughs) That jerk."

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:01:05

       (laughs)

   26. DHDan Henderson1:01:06

       He, (laughs) he loves me so much he's gotta buy the company so-

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:01:08

       (laughs)

   28. DHDan Henderson1:01:09

       ... I'm gonna ...

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:01:12

       You remember, uh, uh, Affliction? They were around-

   30. DHDan Henderson1:01:14

       Yeah.

Episode duration: 1:54:24