Report: Henderson Declined Contract Extension
Reigning PRIDE Welterweight Champion and current light heavyweight UFC fighter Dan Henderson has revealed that Randy Couture may not be the only fighter unhappy with the UFC:
Light heavyweight Dan Henderson, who was in Houston on Saturday to conduct a clinic at Miletich Fighting Systems, says dealing with the UFC on compensation and contracts is challenging and not as easy as previous negotiations with Pride Fighting Championships.
“It seems like guys could be happier,” Henderson said. “Part of the problem is that they had a couple, three bad shows and got killed in Ireland (at UFC 72) on the money. And, possibly the fact that they spent a boatload of money buying Pride and didn’t do anything with it; they are trying to make some cutbacks, and the fighters aren’t overly happy about that.”
According to the report Henderson was offered a contract extension before his bout against UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton Jackson at UFC 75 in September but declined it. While he is still going to “give the UFC a chance” at offering him another contract the 37-year-old may sign a shorter contract with another promotion or retire.
After losing the title fight against Jackson many expected him to move to the UFC’s middleweight division to unify the PRIDE and UFC championships. Henderson, however, has stated that he would like to continue fighting at 205 pounds with his eyes set on the Jackson’s Light Heavyweight belt. With only a single fight remaining on his current contract he is unlikely to receive a title shot without signing an extension for several additional fights.
Tags: Dan Henderson
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The fighters on the bargaining block need to be careful about what they say. The UFC could make an example out of them the way Randy made an example out of the UFC. Hell hath no fury like a Boss scorned.
i hope all this talk of money does not get in the way of making the big fights happen like in boxing. i can also see more fighters leaving with other organisations seeing these problems and using them to catch up with the ufc.no one fighter is bigger than the ufc but when there are problems starting to show up often it is worrying.
Henderson should hold out for more money. I’m not a fan of his, but he is one helluva fighter and should be well compensated. The guy is a stud and if he doesn’t get what he wants from the UFC, he should go elsewhere and make the UFC look like cheapskates and make them go through more bad press.
Henderson is a quality fighter and while some have moved around weight classes after defeats in the past (cough Randy Couture cough)Henderson remains confident in staying at 205lbs and getting his belt back. His fight with Rampage was close enough to warrant a rematch and I think it unfair of management to push him to drop down to 185. Either way, Henderson deserves significant dollars and if the UFC really won’t give it to him, let him fight elsewhere.
I agree that he needs to stay where he is, and I don’t blame the guy I would have a hard time seeing anyone drop weight to fight Anderson Silva.
It’s hard for me to say where he’s needed more. The UFC has more talent at light heavyweight and really needs a challenger at 185. It comes down to what Hendo wants more: any championship or the Light Heavyweight championship. A potential title shot comes much quicker at middleweight than at 205.
He’s going to be a force in either division. It comes down to wich belt he wants to fight for.
Nobody signs a new contract before a title fight. I mean what would have happened if he beat Rampage? I can understand why he doesnt want to go down to middle weight. In his eyes he sees more competition in light heavyweight. Silva is good, but I believe Henderson could beat him on the way to getting a coffee at Starbucks.
Signing a contract immediately before a title fight doesn’t make sense because if you win you will instantly be worth more. The problem is the UFC is notorious for passing up deserving fighters who have one contract remaining in favor of guys who have long-term deals. The UFC doesn’t want to get burned by a champion walking away after winning the title.
Henderson should sign a contract for say, 3 fights. If he beats a top contender last time out he will likely get a title shot in the middle of 2008 and he will still have a fight on his contract after the title fight.
This is of course speculation but it is very similar to what the UFC is doing to Andrei Arlovski. While he has beat some tough competition he only has one fight left on his deal and won’t get a shot at the champion or a top-contender until he re-signs. Couture resigning can only help his bargaining the position as the heavyweight division has 4-5 contenders and no champion. The UFC should do a tournament like Strikeforce is holding: 4 men compete for the title on one night. Nothing to boost buyrates like a tourney.
I think more fighters should follow suit,weed out the greed.
BRING BACK PRIDE.
dan will be much stronger in the middleweight division…and if he gets to fight anderson(if he beats franklin)i think that he will take anderson down and ground and pound him to beat him
Danny boy hasnt been in the UFC long enough to b**** about it. The UFC losing Couture…..thats a shot to the UFC….The UFC losing Henderson….not a big deal.
Here’s an interesting tidbit.
Lorenzo Fertitta told the Japanese media and Sakikbara himself that when the UFC bought PRIDE, it wasn’t about the dollars per say, it was about the fights. Obviously, the fights he was talking about would bring in big money, so it didn’t matter. Lorenzo caved on his word though in that he said PRIDE would always exist and always be around. Obviously, it’s dead.
With that said, the news that PRIDE was basically being shut down brought me to believe that White and the Fertittas really don’t care about the fighters. They didn’t keep PRIDE around, they kept nearly half the best fighters in the world in limbo from their PRIDE contracts.
The entire Henderson saga will play out and it may ultimately help ex-PRIDE fighters decide what they want to do, and possibly some UFC faithful fighters. HDNet apparently was a class act to the fighters according to the Sherdog report. There are other options. EliteXC, Strikeforce, although not as big, they have some capital behind them. This Henderson deal could be a breaker for the UFC, they need to get a good deal done.
Well said Leland. The whole PRIDE situation angered a lot of fans and fighters because the UFC said one thing and did another. I can understand the business was a mess but to just ax it altogether wasn’t the right choice. It was and still is to an extent a marketable brand and should have been resurrected.
I too have heard good things about HDNet and EliteXC and Strikeforce both seem to have gained some momentum on the UFC with the recent issues.
There are a few entries at MMAJunkie of ex-fighters who actually went to the event. They said it was top notch, they even did the PRIDE parade at the beginning of the event. Come on, what’s not to love!
The fact that the UFC has paid SOME fights TONS of money to come to the UFC shows that the UFC cares about making the best fights. What other incentive would they have?
Now, all the other top notch fighters want the same kind of money, and it’s just not fair to the UFC. I’m not defending the UFC, but I hate it when professional athletes cry over money. Some people would pay just to be in some of the fighters shoes.
The UFC is the has become the combat sport on TV these days. Way more enjoying than boxing has been since the days of Tyson and lets face it, that was a LONG time ago.
*Side Note: People worship Randy Coture, if he wanted a with fight Fedor so bad he had his chance in 2006 before coming out retirment to win the tittle in the UFC. Stop crying about money Randy, if you want to fight Fedor so bad call him up, invite him to your basement and get your ass wooped there! I’d pay to see that1
The UFC fighters want the same money because of the recent losses by the ex-PRIDE fighters in the cage. That’s the only real logical reason. They came here, and were conquered… so far. Now the UFC fighters want those huge lucrative deals that those fighters are now getting. That’s part of Randy’s argument. To be honest, the UFC should man up and give him the money, but with Fedor going to M-1 now, I could care less.
I understand what current UFC fighters are saying as well as Randy, but Dana paid for the potential of the PRIDE fighters. I think we will see a resurgence from them. I’m not sure Shogun will be on the fast track, but I see Wanderlei being very tough to beat, and I think Crocop has a very good chance at turning the ship around with Couture out of the picture.
“They came here, and were conquered…”
“..the recent losses by the ex-PRIDE fighters in the cage.”
Realize it’s just been Shogun (once.) and Mirko (twice) of the upper tier fighters that have been signed… both (what I, as a fan) view as legitimate reasons why their performances were so bad (Shogun’s more so than Mirko’s) in their last three fights combined.. Should I even point out the two main reasons why the big name PrideFC star’s should be paid big? coughSPIDERcoughRAMPAGEcough…all undefeated and TITLE HOLDERS.. TOP OF THEIR CLASS.. Now a good chance that Big Nog will be holding the HW belt very soon as well.
The UFC wants some of the PrideFC talent, but will never EVER want to take them all in and have the risk of the whole “PrideFC taking over UFC” thing/Dana being horribly wrong in saying “UFC>PRIDE” and “Pride is a joke”.. As already said, a chance at a third PrideFC guy holding yet another belt in the UFC, lol. UFC/Dana/Match maker thinks just because a guy has a big name, a lot of fans knows who he is, that means he’s a top tier fighter and deserves a right to fight the guys who are just raw as f*** and insanely over hyped…because this is what sells, this is what puts people in the seats. Not a match up of guys like Arona, Soko, Filho, Hunt..etc because the masses of dumb fans don’t know who they are, so they wont sell, so the UFC wont bother signing those guys (with amazingly more talent than 99% of what is in the UFC) just because they can’t market them..Can you guys hear “****, TITO’S FIGHTIN SOME OTHER NO NAME WRESTLING SCRUB? GOTTA WATCH THAT, GOOD ACTION.”..UGH, idiots… Chuck KO’ing a bunch of wrestlers with zero striking ability (even got KO’d. by a wrestler with zero striking ability back then..lol) is a good example over someone being way to over hyped as the “best fighter in the world”..hook-line-sinker on everyone.
Actually, PRIDE fighters have went 5-7 in the UFC. UFC fighters haven’t faired unbelievably well when they crossed over to the ring either. Shogun’s mistake was his cardio. He’s never been a devastating knockout fighter with his hands. His Muay Thai skills are where his knockout power is and Griffin stayed away from it the entire fight. Mirko is on the verge of unleashing rage in the UFC. Kongo was obviously a tough test, but he was winning after the 1st round. Once you add in the fact he had a broken rib and had been kneed in the nuts a good three or four times, it’s somewhat hard to breath, keep cardio going, and win a fight. Along with a deviated septum, he was having some horrible luck. His stance and gameplan in the first round was actually pretty good against a much large Kongo. I imagine we haven’t seen the end of Mirko. With Couture leaving, Mirko can be back in the hunt after two more fights, hopefully he re-signs for less money and proves why he should be near the top.
They aren’t being paid large amounts due to two guys holding belts. They are being paid because of their huge potential. Now, we are seeing TUF winners beat PRIDE guys, their value goes down substantially. Rampage, I agree, is a PRIDE veteran. He has a perfect style for the cage as well, with his power, wrestling, and Muay Thai style clinchwork, along with his obvious power punching. Silva, I don’t consider a PRIDE fighter. He’s more of a journeyman. He has equal bouts in many different organizations, and is more of a UFC fighter than anything.
You sound like you are definitely a fan of PRIDE, I definitely was as well. Fact is though, the UFC fighters have had a bigger impact against the PRIDE’s top guys. I believe we will see a surge of destruction by some of the PRIDE guys in the coming months as they get used to the cage and begin to train harder to get back into form. I actually agree with your assessment of Chuck Liddell. I have NEVER been a fan of Liddell, and I believe that he was hand fed ground fighters during his streak of wins. Only problem was, those grapplers were trying to play his game, which is a horrible gameplan. Hopefully we will see some new guys coming in soon.