After winning one of the biggest NHB tournaments to date, Dan Henderson has been quiet. By his own admission, he said that he was only fighting in order to earn enough money to train for and accomplish the wrestling goal that he has pursued his whole life, winning an Olympic gold medal. I thought that I would call Dan and get his thoughts on his fights, ask him what he's been up to, what he's been doing with all that cash, and what he has coming up. Dan has definitely not been taking it easy. He took second place at the U.S. Nationals and just won the Pan-American Championships in Columbia. I finally caught up with Dan on June 4, 2000.

FCF: So Dan, how have you been since the King of Kings?
DH: Pretty good. I have just been wrestling 100% of the time. I haven't been doing any fight training at all.

FCF: What competitions have you entered?
DH: I've been to the U.S. nationals, ended up second there.

FCF: Which spots in the nationals go on?
DH: Well, they take the top eight to the Olympic trials.

FCF: When are the Olympic trials?
DH: June 21st to the 24th.

FCF: So it's coming up quickly.
DH: Yeah. I just got back from the Columbia. I was there for a little over a week. It was for the Pan-American Championships.

FCF: How did you do over there?
DH: I took first.

FCF: Sounds great. It sounds like everything is coming together for you.
DH: Yeah, I beat the current world champ there from Cuba.

FCF: Is that what you have been doing with the cash from the King of Kings just training?
DH: I paid off a bunch of bills and have just been training full-time.

FCF: Let's talk about your matches at the King of Kings. Your first two matches were extremely tough for you. Gilbert Yvel just won a RINGS event recently beating Kiyoshi Tamura. Tamura took Renzo Gracie out of the King of Kings. Take us back to the King of Kings, tell us how each of your fights went. [Gilbert Yvel-Decision R2, Rodrigo Nogueira-Decision R3, Renato Babalu-Decision R2]
DH: Well for my first fight against Yvel, I felt pretty good. I got a little tired towards the end. Basically, I think because he was so heavy and I was taking him down so many times. But I thought that I fought pretty smart and pretty well. I felt pretty well after though. My second fight, I just wasn't mentally into that and I didn't do a whole lot. I didn't have a whole lot happen to me either. I just felt that I could have been more mentally into that match, more mentally ready.

FCF: Some people say that you got a gift with your fight against Nogueira. What would you say these people?
DH: I just think that it was a very close fight and it could have gone either way. I'm sure that it would have been the other way around if he would have won. Some people would have said that about him. I'm just glad it went my way.

FCF: What about Babalu?
DH: For Babalu, I just went out there with the right mental attitude and it showed in my fight. I felt like I had taken it to him pretty well. He didn't do much to me at all, he got a few kicks in the second round, but other than that I didn't feel anything from him. I was close to getting a couple chokes in on him. I got a couple good shots in on him as far as striking goes. I just felt good during that fight and knew that I had it won toward the end.

FCF: The Olympic trials are coming up, so you're probably throwing all your efforts into that, but what are your plans after that?
DH: Yeah, I definitely plan on fighting for another two years.

FCF: Do you have anything planned right now?
DH: No, I am basically waiting for who wants to offer me the right money that I think that I'm worth for each fight. I kind of want to pick all the top middleweights. Mainly, I just want to fight all the top guys.

FCF: You are still undefeated in NHB right?
DH: Yup, still undefeated.

FCF: You have been successful in both wrestling and NHB. Do you plan to stop wrestling and pursue a career in NHB full-time?
DH: Yeah, after the Olympics. I plan on doing that full-time. I think that I will improve a lot if I'm able to spend 100% of my time training for fighting, which I've never done before. I've only spent a couple months here and a couple months there. I'm kind of excited to do that.

FCF: The new UFC middleweight champ, Tito Ortiz, has expressed interest in fighting you as one of the top middleweights. How do you feel about going up against him?
DH: Well, he's one of the top guys. I wouldn't be against that if the money was right. He's a friend of mine, but I wouldn't be against fighting him. I got a couple other guys that I would like to knock off first.

FCF: Like who?
DH: I would like to fight [Kazushi] Sakuraba and maybe [Kiyoshi] Tamura. And maybe Frank [Shamrock] or any one of the Gracies.

FCF: Tamura and Sakuraba are well-rounded fighters who have done well against either pure strikers or pure grapplers. And you're a pure grappling that is adding striking to his game, what do you see yourself capitalizing on that the others could not?
DH: Well, I don't think that they fought that good of a grappler as myself. And I have definitely been working on my striking. If I got to work on my striking and if I'm able to spend two or three months training for a fight, I will be unstoppable. That's my opinion.

FCF: How's your submissions coming along?
DH: They haven't improved any since my RINGS tournament because I haven't worked on anything. I haven't worked on any submissions or striking since then.

FCF: Are you planning on working on your submissions along with your striking?
DH: Yeah, I definitely want to improve my submissions and my striking.

FCF: What do you see as more essential right now? What are you planning on focusing more of your training on?
DH: I think that I would need just about of each. I want to get better with both. I want to be able to submit some guys. I feel comfortable to not be caught in submissions, but I would like to be able to submit some guys also, which takes a little more work. The striking on my feet needs to improve as well.

FCF: When are the Olympics?
DH: It's at the end of September.

FCF: After the Olympic trials are you going to try and squeeze in a fight before the Olympics?
DH: I'm not going to fight again until winter. I'd like to fight in December after the Olympics.

FCF: Do you see this as your last shot at winning a gold medal at the Olympics?
DH: Oh yeah, beating the current world champ, I mean, that's a big thing going into the Olympics. But I have to meet the make the team first. It definitely builds my confidence beating the current world champ.

FCF: So what place do you have to win in order to make the team?
DH: Number one.

FCF: Two and three are just the alternates?
DH: Just the second guy is usually the alternate. I don't know about all the guys, but they will take some guys as work out partners and the type of stuff that they need done. I don't think that they ever had the number two guy wrestle.

FCF: You're not going to take a break after the Olympics?
DH: Yeah, I'd like to take a little bit of time off, maybe a couple weeks. And then start training for fighting.

FCF: So you're looking at a pretty active 2001?
DH: Yeah, I'd like to get in at least three fights that year. I am looking at fighting 6-8 more times in my career. And then just being done with it.

FCF: After wrestling and fighting is done, what do you plan on doing?
DH: I'll probably still coach wrestling and do some fight seminars. Randy Couture and I just opened a gym in Portland, actually we just bought into a gym. So we are going to be running a lot of our fight stuff out of that. So it's a good opportunity for us to train there.

FCF: Do you want to give me any details about the gym?
DH: Yeah, it's in Gresham, Oregon. It's called Performance Quest Training Center. The phone number there is (503) 618-1312. The web site is hopefully coming up in the next month or two, it will be performancequest.com.

FCF: So you just to be teaching and doing seminars?
DH: Yeah, once I'm done fighting, I don't think I'm going to stay in as good of shape, unless someone offers me the right amount of money.

FCF: How old are you?
DH: I'm 29, almost 30.

FCF: So you're going to fight for couple more years?
DH: Yeah, I'm probably going to fight until I'm 32. I just have other things that I want to do in my life. I've fought and wrestled for such a long time. My body's getting beat up.

FCF: I appreciate you taking the time out for the interview and bring us back a gold!
DH: No problem. Yeah I better!