Dan Henderson began competing in Pride Fighting Championships in late 2000. He entered in 3 tournaments for the organization, winning the Welterweight(183 pounds) tournament at Pride Shockwave 2005 by defeating Murilo Bustamante by split decision. The opening two rounds of the 8 man tournament were fought at Pride Bushido 9, where Henderson knocked out both Ryo Chonan and Akihiro Gono. Along with this tournament victory, he was also awarded the Pride Welterweight Championship.

in 2006 Henderson lost a decision in a rematch against Kazuo Misaki. It was the first time in Henderson’s 10 year career that he lost a fight competing against an opponent under 205 pounds. Henderson’s final Pride bout was a rematch with Wanderlei Silva at Pride 33 in Las Vegas, Nevada on February 24, 2007, where he scored a knockout victory to become Middleweight Champion(205 pounds), while still holding his Welterweight title. Henderson became the first fighter to simultaneously hold titles in two different weight classes in a major MMA organization. Overall, Henderson went 13-5 with Pride, with 8 victories coming by stoppage.

Henderson has been prescribed testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) after being diagnosed with low testosterone levels in 2007.

Photo: Susumu

Pride’s former welterweight and middleweight champion, who is also the former Strikeforce’s light-heavyweight champion,  spoke on Rick J Lee’s channel, about steroid testing in MMA.

“I’ve been saying for a few years they need to implement random, no-advance notice drug testing and that’ll clean everything up. Maybe not everything, but it’ll rule the detour guys from thinking about doing any illegal performance enhancing drugs. If somebody can show up at your door at any time and tell you to pee in a cup or take a blood test, you’re not gonna risk certain things. The way it was, I knew exactly when I was going to get drug tested. So if I was one of these guys who did performance enhancing drugs, it wouldn’t be a big deal.”

 

Hendo also implies taht only him and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira were clean:

“Pride was what it is. I asked about drug testing and they would always drug test you over there but it wasn’t for that. It was more for recreational drugs, cocaine and stuff like that. It was more for show and they commented that if they did it, me and Nogueira would be the only fighters they would have left. Who knows what everybody was doing? All I know is that I’m happy they’re doing it now”.