Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping’s Twitter exchange was the real UFC 251 main event.
Dan Henderson and Michael Bisping are two of the middleweight division’s most well-known names. For Bisping, he was arguably the Jorge Masvidal of a decade ago. A mid-card fighter who could do some work but never could get over the hump. Just like Masvidal, Bisping got a title fight on short notice, but unlike Masvidal, Bisping won his. For Dan Henderson, he became one of MMA’s greatest fighters of all time. He won three world titles across PRIDE and Strikeforce, but never the UFC.
The two men would collide in the UFC in 2009 at UFC 100. Henderson won that fight with a stunning KO mid-way through the second round. Henderson was 38 and thought to be slowing down. Part of the reason for Henderson’s late surge in his career, as Jonathan Snowden pointed out, had to do with TRT (testosterone replacement therapy), a since banned treatment for fighters. Something Bisping has never let go of. The first fight between the two caused some bad blood, but the rematch was where things got really chippy.
The two haven’t liked each other since the rematch but it had mostly cooled off since Henderson and Bisping both retired from fighting. Yet, sometime before the main event for UFC 251 started, Henderson opened up the old wounds with a dig at Bisping’s commentary.
Not surprisingly, Bisping responded back in kind and then the real main event for the evening was off.
Enjoying the fights as much as possible while having to listen to Bisping. Happy anniversary to the night I put you to bed. @bisping
— Dan Henderson (@danhendo) July 12, 2020
Drinking again and reliving your old glory. All polite to my face and talk shit online. Didn’t have you down as a keyboard warrior. https://t.co/zFNNChhF7I
— michael (@bisping) July 12, 2020
Surprised you saw this, guess you're not keeping your one eye on the fights as you're supposed to be commentating. No wonder why your commentating is shit. https://t.co/Gs8cVQ2xTy
— Dan Henderson (@danhendo) July 12, 2020
Neither man lobbed anything too destructive at one another but points could be deducted from Bisping for hitting three responses on just one of Henderson’s tweets. If we’re scoring this round-by-round, Henderson definitely took the night, simply because he wasted less energy whipping Bisping up emotionally, all while Bisping was supposed to be working as a color commentator for the card.
It’s now 2-1 in favor of Henderson.