Dan Henderson was scheduled to face Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title at UFC 151, but he had to pull out of the fight with an injury and he will not be the next title contender against Jones.
It was been rumored for several weeks that Henderson’s next opponent would be former champion Lyoto Machida and Henderson said last night on “MMA Uncensored Live” on Spike TV that this will be his next fight.
The former Pride and Strikeforce champion said that he believes the fight will take place at UFC 156 on February 2nd in Las Vegas, but the fight is not official at this time.
If the fight does take place on Super Bowl weekend, the fight would likely be the co-main event on the pay-per-view.
Henderson (29-8) is currently on a four fight winning streak and returned to the UFC last year after being the Strikeforce light heavyweight champion and holding a victory over Fedor Emelianenko in his last fight in Strikeforce. In his return to the UFC, he had the fight of the year in 2011 when he defeated Mauricio “Shogun” Rua by decision are UFC 139.
Machida (18-3) has won two of his last three fights and the only lost during this recent streak came against Jon Jones at UFC 140. After his win against Ryan Bader at UFC on FOX 4, he was scheduled to get a title shot, but turned down a title shot against Jones on short notice.
UFC 156 takes place on February 2nd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and will be headlined by Jose Aldo defending the UFC featherweight title against former lightweight champion Frankie Edgar.