PRIDE never die: Ranking the top 25 PRIDE fighters in history

5. Dan Henderson

Dan Henderson’s career in PRIDE wasn’t nearly as fruitful in totality as many others on this list. He’d begin his career in the company going a shocking 3-3, but would only lose two more times over his career in PRIDE; capping off a 13-5 run in the promotion. To be fair, four of his PRIDE losses are to three men on this list. Wanderlei Silva, Ricardo Arona, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (twice) accounted for four of his losses. The lone loss on Henderson’s PRIDE record that was to someone not on this list was to Kazuo Misaki.

While other fighters may have more wins or a better win percentage, Henderson has not only his fair share of big wins but is also one of the first fighters in history to win two different weight class championships at the same time for one company. Henderson beat Murilo Bustamante for the welterweight championship while winning the PRIDE Welterweight Grand Prix and then would go on to defeat Silva in a rematch from Henderson’s PRIDE debut and in doing so won the PRIDE middleweight championship.

Being one of, if not the very first person, to become a “champ-champ” is enough alone to get him in the top ten of any “Best of…” PRIDE list. Doing so while beating names like Murilo Rua, Renzo Gracie, Bustamante, Silva, and Vitor Belfort is why he’s this high.

He may have never won a UFC title but his two PRIDE world titles, plus his Strikeforce light heavyweight championship is all the reason one needs to respect what Henderson has done in the industry. He even has one of the few wins over Fedor Emelianenko when they shared a ring during their Strikeforce days.

Henderson outlasted many fighters, being competitive well into his late 40’s, and even getting a middleweight title opportunity against UFC champ Michael Bisping in his last fight before retirement.