Conor McGregor Handed Double Championship Reality Check as UFC Legend Confesses About His Broken Dream

Conor McGregor stands as the first UFC champ-champ in the history of the promotion. Undoubtedly, that legendary night at MSG in 2016, where he KO’d Eddie Alvarez, must be the pinnacle of McGregor’s UFC career. But before McGregor and the UFC’s rise to the top, there was Pride. The noted Japanese MMA promotion, ‘Pride’ stood as the apex combat sports promotion in those times. Long-time MMA fans may know that ‘Pride FC’ also had a double champ of their own, long before the UFC had theirs. But do you know who it was?

Well, it’s none other than the noted former UFC star, Dan Henderson. After the UFC’s takeover of Pride, the achievements of a lot of their fighters faded out with time gradually. A lot of modern MMA fans may be completely unaware of the fact that there was a champ-champ in MMA long before McGregor made his pro-MMA debut. But recently, Henderson intended to remind fans who got to the coveted double champ status first.

Dan Henderson throws shade at Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor held the UFC’s featherweight and lightweight titles during his double championship reign. Meanwhile, Henderson held the welterweight and middleweight titles of Pride during his time as a champ-champ. Both feats are in a class of their own, yet McGregor enjoyed, and still enjoys, more limelight than Henderson.

The UFC veteran recently decided to do something about it and took to his social media. The caption to his recent Instagram post read, “Anyone guess first DOUBLE CHAMPION in MMA HISTORY?”. The California native’s intentions of taking a dig at McGregor became apparent by the next part of his caption. It read, “Hint: It wasn’t no leprechaun.”

The post also had a picture of Henderson donning two Pride FC belts. Evidently, the 53-year-old wants the respect he’s due.

His ‘leprechaun’ reference could not have been more obvious about McGregor. The Irishman’s name is often lauded when people discuss the first MMA simultaneous double champ. However, the 53-year-old also took to his ‘X’ account around the same time and described how he could have achieved a lot more in Pride.

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‘Hendo’ held the welterweight and middleweight championships simultaneously during his Pride tenure. But, his ‘X’ update reveals that he was nowhere near satisfied even after being the champ-champ. The California native mentioned how he was confident about bagging the third simultaneous championship as well. After naming the noted Pride FC fighters of those days, Hendo revealed that he had to defeat the famed Brazilian MMA star, Murilo Bustamante for his Pride Welterweight championship.

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He also talked about how he could’ve also become a triple-champ after mentioning that he beat another famous Brazilian MMA icon, Wanderlei Silva, to achieve the middleweight title of Pride. His update partially read, “Would’ve been Triple Champ if I had full training camp for Big Nog rematch”.

Henderson also faced Antonio Rogerio Nogueira two times in his entire Pride career in 2002 and 2005. But both of those fights ended in defeats for him. Although he accepted his first defeat completely, ‘Hendo’ revealed that he could’ve got the better of “Big Nog” if he had enough time to prepare for him.

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Given McGregor’s brash and outspoken attitude, do you think he will provide a reply to ‘Hendo’? How do you think he will counter Henderson’s shots that pack a punch of reality?