Jon Jones will be making his fourth UFC light heavyweight title defense in two weeks when he takes on former Pride and Strikeforce champion Dan Henderson.
“Bones” has continued to say that he wants to go down as the greatest light heavyweight of all time. With two more straight title defenses, he will break Tito Ortiz’s UFC record for most consecutive title defenses in the light heavyweight division.
Henderson is one of the legends in the sport and this will be the second time that he has challenge someone for the UFC light heavyweight title.
“Dan Henderson is just another tough guy,” Jones said. “He is not a this big mythical character to me.”
During his career, fighters who have entered the cage against Jones have talked about the style that he is. Rashad Evans recently joked to Henderson that he should not hold his hands like he did against him at UFC 145 in April.
In a recent interview with UFC.com, Jones made the statement that he wants to be the first person to knockout Henderson and compared his fighting style to walking into a dark room.
“Fighting me is could be like walking into a dark room, you really just don’t know what to really expect,” he said. “I feel very confident that I will be the first guy to TKO him.”
Henderson is known for his right hand and Jones knows he must stay away from that. Henderson’s right hand is known as “The H Bomb” and nearly half of his wins are by knockout. Three of his previous four wins are by knockout and is coming off a decision victory against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
Both of these fighters have backgrounds in wrestling with Henderson making the 1992 and 1996 United States Olympic teams in Greco-Roman wresting, while Jones was a junior college wrestler before coming to MMA.
“When you put Dan Henderson against a guy who can wrestle with him, then you have to throw his wrestling out the window,” he said. “I am the guy who wrestled in junior college. He is the guy who wrestled in the Olympics. If he gets taken down by a junior college kid, it’s not going to look to cool.”
Henderson will look to become the first fighter to win a Pride, Strikeforce and UFC title against Jones. However, Jones plans to not allow that to happen. “Dan Henderson thinks he is going to be the guy to take my belt, he has another thing coming,” Jones said. “I will remain the UFC light heavyweight champion.”