On the day of the first press conference for UFC 145: “Jones vs. Evans”, another light heavyweight contender continues to do what he has been doing for months- waiting.
After defeating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 139 in November, Dan Henderson (29-8) maintained that he felt he deserved a title shot after that victory, and that he was willing to wait for it. He continued to wait through January, as Rashad Evans faced Phil Davis at UFC on FOX 2. Throughout the week, UFC President Dana White answered repeatedly that Evans would get the opportunity to face Jon Jones if he were to win against Davis. However, if Evans lost or suffered an injury against Davis, Henderson would step in to face Jones.
Unfortunately for Henderson, Evans defeated Davis and left the cage unscathed, and the matchup with Jones was announced for UFC 145 on April 21st shortly thereafter.
Throughout this time, Henderson has been offered opponents, but has declined all of them. White confirmed that Henderson most recently turned down an opportunity to face Lyoto Machida. Reportedly, he also turned down a rematch with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. The two fought in April 2005 at PRIDE Total Elimination 2005, with Nogueira winning by armbar.
Henderson has stated that due to a lot of the top contenders in the division already with opponents, he would be interested in fighting at heavyweight while waiting for the scheduled fights in the light heavyweight division to play out. Henderson fought at heavyweight last June, defeating Fedor Emelianenko via TKO in the first round. This was his final fight for Strikeforce before returning to the UFC.
However, the UFC rarely allows fighters to move around in weight, instead preferring fighters permanently move to a specific weight class.
For now, Henderson will have to continue waiting, but will likely end up taking a fight during the summer instead of waiting for the Jones vs. Evans winner to be ready. With that championsip fight scheduled in April, the winner might not be ready until late summer or early fall. Henderson turns 42 in August.
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I would love to see Hendo vs Jones/Rashad.
Don’t want to see him fight Silva again. No interest at all.
This is what is turning me away from remaining an avid fan of the UFC, and I just can’t help it.
Guys have to start fighting more than twice per year. It’s ridiculous. And I am not referring to Hendo here, I am referring more to the winner of the Evans-Jones fight. The winner needs a full 4 months off before fighting again??! That’s almost an entire football season. Dana claims these fighters are the best atheletes in the world. Then why cant they get ready for 25 minutes of competition without 4-6 months of training. Again, its ridiculous. NFL atheletes go through a grueling 3-hour battle (3 hours, not 15-25 minutes) and are ready to do it again 7 days later. And they do that 16 times in a row.
The champs and top-contenders are babied beyond beleif these days when they only fight twice per year, and the fight cards have become extremely watered down as a direct result.
I understand that GSP and Anderson have dealth with major injuries, but even when healthy, those two guys barely fight 4 times per 24 months. Kudos to Jon Jones for wanting to fight early and often. Champs should fight 4 times per year, period. 6 weight classes with 4 title defenses per division per year yields exactly two title fights every single month. That’s allowing a champ/contender 3 months between every fight which is still absurdly more than enough time in between.
Dana shouldn’t be asking these fighters if/whom/when they want to fight (as with Hendo via Machida/Minotauro) and hope they say okay Instead Dana should be telling them as their boss what their next assignment is. Rank and file, people. The nuts are running the nuthouse.
1. Dana is not their boss. Their are independent contractors who have signed a personal services contract with Zuffa. As a result, they can decide if and when they will work, and the only way Dana can change their mind is to sweeten the pot with more money or a guaranteed title shot.
2. ACs regularly suspend fighters WITH NOT CONTACT for 30 days even if they have sustained little to no damage. Under your ideals, a fighter will have 60 days of training to be ready for a title fight in those cases.
3. Comparing MMA athletes to football players is like comparing apples to dog$hit. Football players do not play for 3 hours each week. In reality, they get long breaks and spend a lot of time standing. They can go take time off AT ANY TIME, and they aren’t getting punched in the face repeatedly. That isn’t to say that the football players aren’t excellent athletes, but I don’t see them surviving an MMA match as well as an athlete like Bones could survive a football game.
4. One reason champions don’t fight as much as some others is because there isn’t always a clear #1 contender – and UFC/MMA fans turn into pi$$y little girls when someone who “doesn’t deserve it” gets a title shot. Given that fact (and you need only read the comments here to know it is a fact), champions will therefore fight less than someone like Koscheck or Matt Brown – guys that are fighting to fight and collect their (smaller) paychecks.
I dont really think that having 60 days to train for a title fight is a bad thing i personally dont understand y u would ever need more than that or really even that much time
Sometimes i think thats what makes some of these title fights boring is that they spend way too much time preparing for each other and the fight becomes a formula to them
When a fighter says he is the best in the world i wanna see him go prove it not train for 4 months then go fight
Its more about the money than anything else
@shiny. I generally agree with points 1,2 and 4.
But 3 really? The only part of this that makes sense is that comparing these 2 sports is pointless. So I guess you are saying apples are nfl players and mma guys are dog sh!t?
Anyone who thinks getting hit by Terrell Suggs is less traumatic than being punched in the face repeatedly needs to change the channel from the ‘home and garden network’ on Sundays. Jon jones(who has 1 brother in the nfl and another preparing for the combines) is a great mma athlete but he would not last a quarter in an NCAA division 2 football game let alone playing in the nfl!
do you know the average nfl play lasts 4 seconds and after that 4 seconds of playing there is a 40 second play clock so lets look at this 4 seconds of playing = 40 second break now lets look at mma 5 minutes of fighting = 1 minute break. not to mention that in the nfl the players dont actually play the entire “3 hours” considering there is offence and defense and special teams!! not to mention that the 4 seconds of playing runs of 25-40 seconds so in reality there is probably 10-15 minutes of playing time in 3 hours where as in mma you fight for 15-25 minutes and it takes 30 minutes to do so!! and as for henederson turning down a fight with “minotoro” not minotauro as you stated who is actually his older brother but if you knew anything about mma you would have known that.
but JEROD you are just another moron with no clue and fabricated facts if you actually had a brain you would know.Personal attacks are really unnecessary. -BSBiz
Never agreed more, some fighters get less than ten fights in ufc and u never see them again, I wanna see more of the fighter more often, but again very well said bro
I don’t think u can think of mma like football because there is no set schedule and u have different events in diff. States with diff. Athletic commissions and diff. Countries and fighters from all over the world it’s very diff. From a sport like football
Most of all tho I think this has to do with money which all things do , they put out as many ppv shows a year as possible with anywhere from 2 -5 important or significant bouts more often on the lower end of that scale , and it’s all cuz they know they can make a shitload more money this way rather than have superstacked cards every time
I personally don’t think it has that much to do with fighters not wanting to fight a lot although there r def. exceptions. But also champs and top contenders cant just fight anybody they need to fight a very select few fighters that r equal to them and have to wait on them.
I am with u tho I do wish some people fought like Cowboy does every couple months
Also there are typically always 30 to 60 day suspensions after fights. Thank god hendo didn’t take the fight with lil nog. That fool is so overrated and doesn’t even belong imo. And Machida has lost what 3 of 4? Granted to top opponents, but what a fight of all risk and no reward for hendo. He deserves a big fight, and at his age, I can’t blame him for waiting.
Other than that, I would LOVE to see hendo fight spider, Jesus are you kidding me?? If Sonnen doesn’t beat spider then i say hendo gets next crack. He could easily win that fight, especially with Sonnen laying down the game plan. How epic would it be for hendo to beat spider and bones back to back and go out as the best swinging d*** that ever lived. Very unlikely, but that’s the one dude I could fathom doing it. That’s what makes him the best of all time to me.
But back to reality, I’d like to see him dance with a hw while he waits. Even if he lost it wouldn’t be a big knock and he could still get a title fight potentially right away. But who?? The only thing that jumps out is a rematch with big nog, but not sure when he’s back. So I guess the wait continues….
Like i said a couple of weeks ago i think bones should have fought hendo and then the winner fights the winner of evans and davis.would have worked much better timing wise.i love the ufc but come on joe silva,its not rocket science???
Rashad had earned a title shot before Jones – it was only an injury to Rashad that gave Jones his title shot. Given that, and given that Rashad beat Phil Davis and could fight again quickly, he is absolutely ahead of Henderson in line for a title shot.
To say otherwise says that UFC performance means less what you did 7 years ago in Japan.
hendo vs lyoto would be awesome, i agree
I’m shocked he turned down Machida and Lil Nog? A win over Machida and he would deserve an instant title shot. Hendo needs to quit being so greedy and arrogant. Personally I think Jones, Rashad, and Machida would all beat him. Decision wins over Palharas/Franklin/Shogun, losses to Anderson/Rampage, and knockout of Bisping are what we got to go off of with Hendo’s last UFC fights. Now, he was successful in Strikeforce with wins over Babalu/Feijao/Fedor but a loss to Shields. At the age of 41, I still need convinced. Give him another top 5. He wins another fight with a big name and then there wouldn’t be a way to deny him of a title shot. I’d suggest giving him a young gun, someone climbing the ladder. I would say Phil Davis if he hadn’t been easily dismantled by Rashad.
Hendo is very smart. He already lost to Lil Nog, and Machida is a threat to anybody in the light heavyweight division. If he loses either of those fights that puts him out of title contention. If he fights in heavyweight, and loses, he will still be a number one contender for the light heavyweight division. If he wins that’s just icing on the cake. Hendo is getting old, he can’t afford to climb back up the ladder. Smart move.
But I would have liked to see Hendo vs Machida. Hendo being offered to fight Lil Nog is a slap in the face. Lil Nog just beat Tito, and Hendo just beat Shogun. I guess a win is just a win now in the UFC and opponents don’t matter. That’s why no fighter is ever calling out better contenders they just say “I’ll fight whoever they put in front of me.” Props to Mike Pierce for calling out Koschek and everybody else who is not scared to call people out like they used to. Ahh I miss those days.
Looks like Hendo has to take on a nobody if he stays at light heavyweight!
Wow Tyler new thank You for laying out hendo’s last 8 fights and reaffirming in my mind that that dude most def deserves a title shot lol. I mean are you kidding me? I mean you did write all that, right? Lol bro that is a straight legendary run for anyone. He’s not here to fight for making a name, or to move the ranks. He’s fighting winner of Jones/rashad, or spider, and that’s that. Only other option is a heavy fight. But the fact were talking about how he could fight anyone from 185 to 265 just goes to show what a G he is.
he’s probably getting his trt very well oiled. he’s the greatest lil nog is elite but at this stage i respect that he wants spider jones or rashad. shogun 2 would be something though..