Flashback Fight: Anderson Silva unifies UFC and PRIDE belts at UFC 82

Anderson Silva met Dan Henderson in a UFC vs PRIDE FC middleweight title unification bout at UFC 82 in 2008 less than a year after the final PRIDE Fighting Championship event. The event took place at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on March 1, 2008.

Silva defeated Henderson in the second-round by submission to unify the belts. During the fight week, former UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.

TRENDING > Dana White reveals UFC 249 will kick off 3 events in one week

Where are Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson now?

Though he had a handful of losses scattered about the early part of his career, when Silva arrived in the UFC, he seemed to become invincible.

Silva took the middleweight championship from Rich Franklin in only his second UFC bout, part of his record-setting 16 consecutive victories under the UFC banner. He then lost the middleweight championship to Chris Weidman at UFC 162 on July 6, 2013. He has been unable to recapture the belt and hasn’t fought since losing to Jared Cannonier at UFC 237 on May 11, 2019, though he has not given any indication as to what is next for his career.

Henderson won the middleweight tournament at UFC 17, but then went on to spend the next several years of his career fighting Japan. He won the Pride welterweight and middleweight championships (which would equate to middleweight and light heavyweight in the UFC) before returning to the Octagon in 2008. 

Henderson served a short stint in Strikeforce, where he became the promotion’s light heavyweight champion and defeated Fedor Emelianenko in a heavyweight bout before again returning to the UFC.

Though he spent the final five years of his career fighting for the UFC in many memorable bouts, Henderson was never able to capture a UFC divisional championship. He retired in 2016.

(Video courtesy of UFC)

TRENDING > Flashback Fight: Watch Kevin Randleman knock out Mirko Cro Cop!

Does Anderson Silva consider Israel Adesanya his clone?

(Subscribe to MMAWeekly.com on YouTube)