After making it to the final tournament of the RINGS 32-man Megabattle Tournament, I caught up with the man who is using NHB to support a dream that he has been training for his whole life, to medal in the Olympic for wrestling. He is a quiet, soft-spoken man, who primarily does his talking in the ring, or on the mats (where ever the case may be). He is always calm, cool, and confident. I called Dan Henderson on January 20, 2000, to check in on him and see how his training was going, what his thoughts were on the results of the B bracket elimination tournament, and what he is doing to prepare for the RINGS 32-man final tournament scheduled for February 26th.

FCF: How's your training been going?
Dan "Hollywood" Henderson: The training's going pretty well. I just took a little bit of time off for Christmas, but the training's going pretty well.

FCF: Have you seen the RINGS B bracket tournament fights?
DH: Yeah, yeah, I watched it once.

FCF: Have you adjusted your training after the results of the B bracket event?
DH: No, I'm pretty much doing the same thing.

FCF: After seeing who the last eight fighters are, are you planning any strategies against them that you can share with us or are you going to just go out there and play your game?
DH: Well, usually you have to play your game, but it's always nice to know what everyone's strength are. You don't want to necessarily play into everyone's strengths. But you do need to go with your strengths. That's pretty much going to be my game plan, to do what I'm better at. I'm not worried too much about everyone else's game plan right now. It's a little far away right now. It's about a month away.

FCF: Does RINGS let you know who you are going to fight beforehand?
DH: Yeah, they fax me a copy of the bracket, but before they faxed it, they told me I was fighting someone else. And the fax says that I'm fighting him, so I don't know which one is true.

FCF: I have seen three or four different lineups so far.
DH: I don't know what their whole deal is, changing things around and putting so and so against so and so. It doesn't really make a difference to me who I fight. I'm going to win regardless.

FCF: The latest release has you pitted against Gilbert Yvel, who submitted another RINGS fighter after a little over 2 minutes and got a TKO over Tsuyoshi Kosaka. Do you know anything about this fighter?
DH: Just what I've seen on the tapes. He seems fairly explosive and fairly good on his feet. I wasn't positive that I was fighting him because I had heard of a couple different people that I would be fighting. He was the latest one that I have heard [that I am fighting]. He just seems like he's a good striker and he didn't look like he had a whole lot of take down or ground skills.

FCF: The way the bracket is now, if you win your first fight, you will be fighting either the Russian, Kopylov, who submitted his two opponent's quickly or Minotaur, the Brazilian who was also impressive. Both of them finished off their opponents very quickly. Do you forseen any problems with these two submission fighters?
DH: No, I'm fairly confident with my ground game, especially staying out of things. I have been working a lot on my feet, boxing and everything else. I'm confident enough where I'm not going to worry too much about being submitted. Plus the way [RINGS] has set things up, their standing us up pretty quick, so we're not going to get that much of a chance to roll on the ground.

FCF: How long do you normally train for a fight? And how many days do you take off before the fight?
DH: You cut back on your training into short, intense workouts, instead of longer workouts. You just kind of cut back and two or three days before I leave, I'm just doing a little bit here and there, not a whole lot. When I get over there, I usually get in a couple of workouts to stay loose and get all the kinks out from traveling.

FCF: Is it the same for NHB and wrestling?
DH: I treat it the same. It's almost the same type of event.

FCF: You seem pretty relaxed, going into this fight with such a huge grand prize.
DH: That's definitely a big plus. I definitely don't want to miss out on that. I don't know, we'll see how it goes. I know it will be sometimes tough, especially for me being an American and not in RINGS, along with the other guys that are not in RINGS, to win the decision. That's pretty much what I'm looking for. I mean, if it goes the distance.

FCF: Are you looking to try and finish the fight by decision? Didn't you win your other fights by decision?
DH: One decision and one knockout. Obviously the best thing to do is to submit the guy real quick, but I'm in good enough shape where I'm not going to worry about going the distance three times. Three fights in one night is quite a bit. The last fight is pretty much going to be more of a conditioning thing, more than other things. That will probably be the biggest factor.

FCF: You still seem a little too relaxed. Is it because your training is going that well?
DH: Well, my training is going really well and, I don't know. I feel that if this was a big wrestling event, like the Nationals or Olympic trials, I would probably be more worried. I feel like I have more to lose in the Nationals or Olympic trials than this [event]. The only thing I'm going to miss out here is money. I have trained my whole life for the other things, to get to the Olympics and to get a medal. That means a lot more than money [to me].

CF: Does everybody leave with a guaranteed sum?
DH: No, you pretty much have to win in the second half to get any money.

FCF: Is it just the top two or the top four?
DH: Well, if you win your first one, you get $5,000. If you win your next one, you get $10,000. And the last one is worth $200,000. If you take second, you get $15,000 more. Third or fourth your only taking $5000. Pretty much winner takes all.

FCF: When are you planning on leaving for the fight?
DH: Probably like four days before, which would be like around the 21st or 22nd of February.

FCF: A lot of fighters have trouble aclimating themselves and they usually want to arrive real early for their fight. Do you have any trouble with that?
DH: I think that's probably a problem for everybody, a little bit of jet lag. I like to be there a good three or four days before. The last time I was only there for two, two and a half days before. I'd like to go there a little bit earlier.

FCF: Anything else you have coming up?
DH: In early March, I'm probably going up to Bulgaria for a wrestling tournament. And [I am going to] prepare for the Olympic trials. That's pretty much what I'm concentrating on. I'm still wrestling a lot more than I'm preparing for the fight. I'm doing a little bit of training.

FCF: Anything else you wanted to add?
DH: No, I'm just looking forward to going, hopefully doing well, and bringing back some money.

FCF: I look forward to seeing you in it. Good luck in the tournament and good luck with your training.
DH: Thanks a lot. If you need anything else feel free to call.