Dan Henderson Signs With Strikeforce
According to Sherdog, former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight Dan Henderson has signed with Strikeforce. The deal is for four fights and/or 16 months. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Henderson, the middleweight and light heavyweight champion of Pride when the organization was purchased by the UFC, had a chance to unify the Pride and UFC titles twice. His first UFC fight was against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, the UFC’s light heavyweight champion at the time. Henderson lost a close decision to Jackson, but then received a shot at UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 82. After winning the first round against Silva, Henderson was choked out in the second. Since the loss to Silva, Henderson went on a three-fight winning streak including a vicious knockout victory over Michael Bisping at UFC 100. Henderson also served as the coach for the U.S. squad on the ninth season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Henderson had made it known he wanted another shot at Silva, but the UFC passed over him and gave the shot to Vitor Belfor instead. The move angered Henderson, though it seems that money was the main factor that he ended up with Strikeforce. Dana White has been on record saying that Henderson wasn’t worth the money that he wanted and that Strikeforce would be making a mistake if they paid him what he was looking for.
According to MMA Fanhouse, White says that he lowered the UFC’s final offer to Henderson to force his hand into signing with Strikeforce.
He’s happy, but the reality is that I pushed him into signing that deal. I told people over the weekend that he’d sign within the next week.I wanted him to s**t or get off the pot. He was in this limbo forever, and he needed more motivation to make a decision.
Let me ask you a question,” he continued. “Do you think that there’s any guy we can’t get that I want? Other than Fedor [Emelianenko]? So far, he’s been the one guy we can’t get. But everyone else that we’ve wanted, we got. If I wanted Dan Henderson, I could’ve signed him.
It’s clear that White doesn’t believe that losing Henderson is a big deal to his organization. Henderson will likely fight Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields in his first fight, though contests with Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi and Strikeforce heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko remain a possibility for the future.
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