The long awaited bout between former UFC champ, Lyoto Machida, and former PRIDE and Strikeforce champ, Dan Henderson, finally has a home.
According to Henderson, he was told that he and Machida will step into the octagon at UFC 156 on Super Bowl Weekend. The announcement was made last night on “MMA Uncensored Live.”
Dana White has been mentioning this fight for the past month or so, but no official announcement from the UFC has been made.
Dan Henderson, who has been nursing a knee injury, was originally set to meet Jon Jones at UFC 151, but withdrew from the bout just a week before the vent was to take place, and after Jon Jones failed to take on a new challenger on such short notice, the UFC was forced to cancel the event for the first time in history. Hendo’s last appearance in the octagon came at UFC 139
back in November 2011 where he won a close decision over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in what many have declared to be the greatest MMA fight of all time.
Hendo will now need to get past Lyoto if he wants to earn another shot at the UFC light heavyweight championship.
Former champ Lyoto Machida is coming off an impressive knockout win over Ryan Bader at UFC on FOX 4. The win originally put Lyoto in line to be the next to get a shot at the winner of Henderson/Jones, but after UFC 151 fell apart and Machida turned down a short notice fight with Jones, Machida will also have to earn another chance to fight for the belt.
Machida, who lost the belt to Shogun Rua in May 2010, has gone 2-3 in his last five fights, including a arguably controversial decision loss to Quinton Jackson, and a submission loss to Jon Jones when he challenged for the belt at UFC 140 last December.
UFC 156 takes place on February 02, 2013 in Las Vegas and will be headlined by a featherweight title fight as champion Jose Aldo puts his belt on the line against former UFC lightweight champ, Frankie Edgar.
via:mmaCarnivale
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