Sherdog’s Top 10: Successful Olympic Crossovers

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1. Dan Henderson

That Henderson fills the crowning slot on this list should come as no surprise. “Hendo” is, unequivocally, one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all-time, with accomplishments ranging from tournament championships in the dark ages to a two-division title run in Pride and a Strikeforce championship run in the twilight of his career.

Before all of that, however, Henderson was a wrestler, and a dang good one. Although he only qualified for a single NCAA tournament, he found tremendous success under the Greco-Roman rule set in international competition. In fact, Henderson represented the United States as a Greco stylist on the senior level as a 14-year-old at the Pan-American championships in 1984, which is somewhere between nuts and completely insane. Despite his obvious talent, “Hendo” failed to medal in either of his two Olympic appearances, placing 10th in 1992 and 12th in 1996.

Although he made one final run at Olympic glory in 2000, Henderson came up short and devoted himself fully to a mixed martial arts career that was already in full swing. Henderson won a pair of fights in a one-night tournament in Brazil for his debut in 1997, two more to capture the UFC 17 middleweight tournament in 1998 and five fights spread out over two nights to be crowned the champion of the epic Rings “King of Kings” tournament in 2000. That Rings title included victories over Gilbert Yvel, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Renato Sobral in a single night, just in case it was not an impressive enough accomplishment already.

Henderson went on to compete in Pride for the next six years, mixing devastating knockouts with losses to Wanderlei Silva, the Nogueira brothers and Ricardo Arona. His second wind, so to speak, began with a pair of crushing KO wins and a controversial split decision over Murilo Bustamante that gave him Pride’s inaugural welterweight title at 183 pounds. In the promotion’s second outing in the United States, Henderson brutally slept Silva to take the middleweight title and thereby become the first concurrent two-division champion in MMA history.

He never defended either title, as Pride closed its doors and Henderson lost both unification fights with UFC champions Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva. The three-fight winning streak that followed culminated in one of MMA’s iconic moments, the ruthless right hand that sent Michael Bisping crashing to the canvas at UFC 100. Unwilling to pay Henderson’s price, the UFC let him slip away to Strikeforce, where he won the promotion’s light heavyweight title and separated Fedor Emelianenko from consciousness. His return to the UFC hit its high point early, as he narrowly defeated Mauricio Rua in November 2011 in a fantastic slobberknocker. However, Henderson’s 1-4 run since then likely means that his 17-year career is finally coming to an end.

Henderson was not a great Olympian or even a great international wrestler, but he took that base and turned it into one of the greatest MMA careers in history.

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Rick Hawn, Alexis Vila, Henry Cejudo, Will Ribeiro, Satoshi Ishii.