Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante comments on loss to Dan Henderson: “That punch was what went wrong”

Former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion, Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante has been speaking about his devastating knockout loss at the hands of MMA legend, Dan Henderson this past weekend in Columbus, Ohio, explaining everything was fine until “that punch” landed.
Speaking to Tatame Magazine, “Feijao” said:

“That punch was what went wrong, that’s to begin with. I was doing fine on the bout. I was taken down unnecessarily, and it’s pretty hard to take me down. He set a good game plan and fought well. He’s a clever guy, he knows how to fight, he’s experienced, and I thought my good conditioning would make a difference, and I was feeling fine, and I’d move forwards on the fourth round, but he’s dangerous… Unfortunately, that punch landed, but I was following my game plan, trying to work on the medium and long distance, avoiding to be on a danger zone. He uses his mind a lot when he’s fighting. The first coup that he launched on me was that, and you saw what happened, right? I can’t say anything.”

When asked whether he’d welcome a rematch any time soon with the American MMA legend, Cavalcante said:

“Absolutely. The world spins round and round. He was there, i was doing fine, my game plan was good, but that’s how it goes… Each fight is unique, you are only exposed if you’re up there, it’s 50-50. There’s no favoritism, favoritism ends in two seconds, when a wrist matched a chin. I believe I can beat him and we’ll meet each other soon, you can bet on it.”

“I was never that focused on the belt. You know that… My focus is always the next fight, my trainings, my next opponent… My focus it that. The belt, for me, is a consequence, it’s the award you earn after a successful fight. My thoughts about what happened is the same, because I never thought about the belt as a burden. “I’m defending the belt…”. That’s not what matters to me, what matters is what I learn from it, and that is something nobody can take away from me.”

“Feijao” will now have to go back to the drawing board in the light heavyweight division and attempt to work his way back up the ladder. One name mentioned as a possible nest opponent is fellow Brazilian and top rated submission artist, Roger Gracie. Stay tuned to MMABay for more on this story as we get it.