Dan Henderson and Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua are both old timers. One is forty-three and genuinely long past retirement age for a professional fighter, and the other—Mauricio Rua—is just thirty two, but shop worn like nobody else in the sport.

A career in combat sports is not dissimilar to a career in bank robbery. You have to break in to the game, make tons of cash, and get out before it all catches up to you. It's certainly easy to see why Lee Murray decided to have a stab at both.

Some men, like Randy Couture, Bernard Hopkins and Dan Henderson can defy age for far longer than most in the game. The average fighter has nothing like the shelf life of those men though. Dominick Cruz is a brilliant example of someone who has been cut down in his prime by injuries. I joked earlier in the week that when I kick the bucket my heir will inherit a safe full of drafts on Dominick Cruz, because it seems so unlikely that I'm ever going to be able to publish them with the champion-in-exile's continued streak of injuries.

Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua is a fighter who has been almost as plagued by injuries as Dominick Cruz. We haven't yet seen how Cruz's destroyed ACL and groin tear affect his game, but Shogun's repeated knee injuries have ravaged the Brazilian's once terrifying all around game. All fighters come in and their performance (provided they aren't the over-emotional type, or completely over-matched) reflects their activity in training. The problem with Shogun is that it seems his fights are governed by what he is able to train.

Shogun is a real hard hitter, but the openings for his strikes were created by the whirlwind threat of his game. The punishing low kicks, the crazy high kicks, the threat of the double collar tie and knees. In bouts where he doesn't use his legs, he looks like a sad parody of himself.

Nowhere was this more obvious than in his bout with Dan Henderson. Shogun, the better all around striker with kicks, a left hook and great knee strikes, either chose, or was forced by injuries, into trading right hand for right hand with Dan Henderson.

Now as sloppy as Shogun can look when he's just swinging his hands, I think there was some method to his madness. He was repeatedly trying to catch Henderson with an uppercut as Henderson came in.

The problem was that if you throw a right uppercut at the same time an opponent is stepping in with his right hand, you'll get bent over backwards nine times out of ten. The same thing was seen with the tables turned when Alexander Gustafsson attempted his right uppercuts against Shogun.

But Shogun might have been on to something. Vitor Belfort caught Henderson ducking in low with a short uppercut which wobbled the veteran. The difference is that as a southpaw, Belfort's left uppercut comes from the same side as Henderson's right hand, and can cut inside of it.

But this brings us on to the career resurgence of Dan Henderson. Much of Henderson's late career success (we're talking Michael Bisping onwards) was more because of his opponents not respecting the one thing that he does so well. An advantage in technical striking is only an advantage on paper unless you fight towards making use of that advantage.

Here Henderson knocks out Rafael Feijao for standing in front of him.

The Mauricio Rua who fought Chuck Liddell, with kicks and a beautiful left hook, could have given Henderson fits and wouldn't have even had to engage in right hand trades. Likewise, the Fedor Emelianenko who battered Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira with every punch and trip in the book wouldn't have had much trouble in furrowing Henderson's brow either. But they didn't turn up.

Against Chuck Liddel, the threat of Shogun's kicks allowed him to set up this right hip feint into a cheat punch. Not only does he cover a great deal of ground, but it protects him from Liddel's right hand. This is the sort of technique I would love to see Shogun setting up against Henderson.

If a fighter is a one trick pony, and you give them an opportunity to use that trick, you only have yourself to blame for losing. With Henderson it has always been the inside low kick, to the overhand right. He doesn't have much of a left hook out of his stance because it's so side on (normally it requires him to square up first, as he did against Wanderlei Silva), and he rarely throws his right leg at all.

But years of training and rounds on the pads do not mean anywhere near as much as actually being able to use the one thing you're good at. For all I have said about Henderson's lack of other techniques,set ups are the most important part of the game. And Henderson's inside low kick to right hand is one of the simplest, but most polished set ups in the game. I don't think I have seen anyone have the same level of success with a single set up, especially not against high level fighters.

Notice how that stumpy, shot, ugly kick uproots his opponent from their stance and removes their ability to circle out or retreat.

Both men will be meeting at something of a cross roads in their careers. Rua looked great against James Te Huna and it seems like he might be, at last, back on track. Te Huna gifted Rua the knockout, but jumping in with a lead uppercut and his hands down by his nipples, but everything Rua had shown to that point was sublime. The kicks were back, there was movement, and we saw the return of his solid double forearms guard (one of the few effective ones in MMA).

Of course, the fight was only a minute long, so we don't know how long Shogun would have kept up the great work, but it was encouraging to say the least.

Henderson, meanwhile, was stopped by strikes for the first time in his last match. Some think that his legendary chin is now “cracked” as a result. The truth is that Henderson has been knocked down left right and centre throughout his career: Carlos Newton, Akira Shoji, Allan Goes and Wanderlei Silva all floored him with punches. Henderson's great trait was his ability to get up and recover from almost anything.

What Belfort did so well after catching Henderson with the initial counter uppercut and putting him down, was to wait until Henderson stood up, then throw the left high kick just as Henderon's hand was between the floor and his guard. If you're right hand dominant, you will tend to post your right hand to perform a technical stand up, even if you train both sides equally. What's more, this was mid scramble, rather than a calculated kick out to technical stand up.

This gif comes in just a little too late, but you can see Henderson's right hand moving from the floor, up to his guard and being smashed in by the kick.

As the basing hand has to leave the floor and return to a striking stance at some point, there will always be a slight opening, even in a perfect technical stand up (which I reiterate, this wasn't) through which to land a left high kick. This application of the high kick is certainly one which would be worth other MMA fighters investing time in.

So how will the Shogun – Henderson rematch go down? It's really up to Shogun. Henderson is the same each time. A great wrestler with stance busting, but overlooked, inside low kicks, and a headache making right hand. If Shogun wants to throw right hands at Henderson again, he'll probably get dragged into a brawl and get beaten up again. If he uses his full arsenal of abilities and movement? Rua should be able to kickbox Henderson to the point where Henderson wants the takedown or gets outpointed on the feet.

The two meet at UFC Fight Night 39 in Natal, Brazil. It might not be the war that the first fight was, but it's well worth tuning in for the power of both men, and the slight chance of a repeat performance.