Dan Henderson said last week on MMA Uncensored Live that his light heavyweight bout with Lyoto Machida was penciled in for UFC 156 on February 2nd. But that may have been a bit premature. On Fuel TV’s UFC Tonight, it was reported that the UFC doesn’t feel comfortable booking the fight for that card right now due to lingering questions about Henderson’s recovery from a knee injury.
Henderson (29-8) was supposed to get a light heavyweight title shot at champion Jon Jones at UFC 151, but his injury forced him out of the card and partially led to the cancellation of the entire event. In the aftermath of that, UFC president Dana White said Henderson would need another win to get that title shot back, and would be facing fellow top contender Machida (18-3). It was thought that bout was cemented into the schedule, but I guess not.
So, now what? They probably have to make up their minds on UFC 156 pretty quickly. It doesn’t seem like a good idea at this rate, so a delay seems likely. But how much longer can they drag this out? UFC 157 is tentatively booked for Anaheim on February 23rd. Is an extra three weeks enough? Or does it stretch into March, even April? Henderson hasn’t competed since November 2011 and at age 42, the clock is ticking. This probably needs to go down as soon as possible, even if the champ is tied up for a while.