Dan Henderson.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Dan Henderson knocked out Rafael (Feijao) Cavalcante in the third round to add the Strikeforce light-heavyweight championship to his collection Saturday night.
The 40-year-old Henderson also held Pride titles in two weight classes and won the UFC 17 middleweight tournament back in 1998.
Henderson (27-8) tagged the 29-year-old Brazilian champion with a big right hand and Cavalcante flew backwards, landing face down. Henderson straddled him and threw six more blows before referee Dan Miragliotta stepped in after 50 seconds.
In the co-main event at the Nationwide Arena, women's welterweight champion Marloes Coenen took a beating before winning by triangle choke over injury replacement Liz (Girl-Rilla) Carmouche at 1:29 of the fourth round.
Henderson stalked the champion early in the fight but he went down first when Cavalcante (10-3) caught him with an overhand right. But Henderson got back up and took the champion down.
"He caught me with a good dinger that first round but I feel like I finished the first round strong and wanted to be patient," said Henderson.
Henderson tripped Cavalvante twice in the second round to get him down. The two spent the rest of the time fighting in a clinch.
But Henderson settled the matter early in the third.
"It's a punch I kind of like to do," he said. "Threw it, landed it and jumped on top."
Beaten in his Strikeforce debut by Jake Shields at middeweight, Henderson bounced back by stopping light-heavyweight Renato (Babalu) Sobral in December.
Cavalcante won the 205-pound title last August, dethroning the previous unbeaten Muhammed (King Mo) Lawal in Houston.
"I made a lot of mistakes," Cavalcante said of Saturday's loss.
Carmouche (6-1) was a late injury replacement for Miesha (Takedown) Tate. The former U.S. marine was given up four inches to the five-foot-8.5-inch Dutch champion but held her own in the early striking and Coenen had a mouse under her eye by the time the round was over.
The challenger was briefly in trouble in the second round when caught in a standing guillotine but she dropped to the ground and reversed position. With a minute left, Carmouche mounted the champion and punched away. Coenen was lucky to finish the round.
Carmouche tripped Coenen midway through the third round and quickly got into mount position again. It was all Camouche again as she fired blows from above.
In the fourth, a trip resulted in Coenen on top. Carmouche fought her way back up but, when they went back to the ground, Coenen trapped an arm and began working on the triangle choke.
Carmouche landed 221 strikes to 48 for Coenen.
"Liz was whupping my ass," said Coenen.
"She will be a future champion some day," she added.
It was the first defence of the 135-pound title Coenen (19-4) won from Victoria's Sarah Kaufman in October.
Green Beret Tim Kennedy (13-3) beat Dutch kickboxer Melvin (No Mercy) Manhoef by first-round submission in a middleweight bout
Manhoef (24-9-1) fought off three of Kennedy's early takedown attempts in the first round and showed his power, cutting Kennedy down with a vicious leg kick. But Kennedy eventually got him down and took advantage of the holes in the Dutchman's ground game, finishing him off with a rear naked choke at 3:41.
"There's no hidden game plan there. He's weak on his back," said the 30-year-old Kennedy.
Lightweight Jorge Masvidal (21-6) used his size and reach to defeat Billy Evangelista (11-1) via unanimous 30-27 decision. Masvidal landed almost 60 per cent of his strikes and was good on four of five takedowns.
