Okay, I just watched the whole fight.
I saw this on Jim Rome earlier while I was in the gym on the elliptical machine doing my Muay Thai drills, and...I know nothing about UFC fighting. Like a few hours of replayed fights only, and those I barely watched.
But, that said, after seeing it on Rome then seeing it here, I went and found a flash version of the fight to watch.
Here are my thoughts, with 2 conditions first:
1) Hendersen was obv hurting in round 5, at about 2:30 left (1 min before 'the kick') he took a knee to the face on an attempted take down. Didn't look the same after that.
2) Pettis obv had the energy. Towards the end of the 5th, he looked like he was toying with hendersen. At one point Pettis even "broke his ankles" (in a basketball sense) with his footwork.
Now, for what will probably end up with a flaming:
I thought the kick looked fake. Hendersen blocks a high kick and gets pushed back to the cage. He then does this weird foot tap thing on the pad behind him, which I didn't see him do the whole fight prior.
Then Hendersen rotates away from the cage as Pettis advances, giving him room for the ninja. Pettins propels himself off the cage, an Hendersen's arms start up to guard, then drop. Pettis drops him.
Now I don't know anything about UFC fighting. I imagine Hendersen rotated the way he did because frankly I imagine they don't teach you "how not to get ninja'd" in tae kwan doe, and that was the traditional move. Hendersen had been choosing his moments the entire 5th round, backing up for most of it.
But he had his hands up, then dropped them and took the kick, which put him down but not out.
I dunno, I guess it all looked too awesome to be true, if that's possible. But, like I said, I don't know squat.