Sounds like the Hendo will join Strikeforce

CHICAGO – Dan Henderson, the power-punching ex-two division PRIDE champion, will be at the Sears Centre on Saturday for the Strikeforce mixed martial arts card that will air on CBS.

Whether he will have a signed Strikeforce contract when he appears to work the corner of Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou is another matter entirely.

A source close to the situation told Yahoo! Sports on Monday that Henderson had signed with Strikeforce, spurning the Ultimate Fighting Championship, for whom he has fought since 2007. Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker on Tuesday admitted to having talks with Henderson, but denied he has been signed.

Enter into the fray UFC president Dana White, who had been personally involved in the negotiations with Henderson.

White said Wednesday, “I guarantee you 1,000 percent that Dan Henderson is signed by Strikeforce.”

Appraised of White’s stance after Wednesday’s news conference to promote Saturday’s card featuring a heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers, Coker grinned wanly.

“Honestly, I got a call from Dan’s management a couple of days ago telling me Dan had turned down the UFC’s offer,” Coker said. “I guess the UFC made an offer and put a deadline on it. They turned it down and were calling to talk to me, but I told him I have this huge fight and there’s a tremendous amount going on and I couldn’t really deal with it at this point.”

Henderson, 39, remains one of the world’s top middleweights, though he also can fight at light heavyweight. He is 25-7 overall and 5-2 in the UFC, and is coming off a one-punch knockout of Michael Bisping at UFC 100 on July 11 in Las Vegas.

White said he wanted to re-sign Henderson, but not at the price Henderson proposed. Henderson had been in the mix to fight UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. White said he had no hard feelings toward Henderson.

“Dan and I have been friends and we will continue to be friends, but it just didn’t work out and he went to Strikeforce,” White said.

Coker conceded he’d love to have Henderson under contract, but said White’s information is incorrect.

“Everyone who watches MMA knows the kind of fighter Dan Henderson is,” Coker said. “He’s a tough, aggressive, fun guy to watch. Who wouldn’t want a guy like that? Of course we do, and that’s why we’ve spoken with them.

“Honestly, though, we don’t have a deal with him yet. I’ve been up to my eyeballs working on this fight and I just haven’t had time to deal with that yet.”



http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AhTeUf46RRjKh7.uC8ZplhY9Eo14?slug=ki-henderson110509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Sounds like it's over bar the shouting, Croker probably just doesn't want anything overshadowing the build up to the card tomorrow night.

If I was Hendo I'd go straight after Fedor just for the hell of it. It'd be a sure ratings winner despite making no sense in the title picture.

I can see why Henderson would go there. Even though he's a top level competitor, he has to be looking at winding his career down. And the Mousasi fight would be a really good fight to take, given that Mousasi is a young fighter looking like he could rule the light heavyweight division for years to come. If Henderson could beat him, it would really solidify his legacy. There are other fights they could put together, re-matches with Babalu and Arona, rubber match with Misaki (pending his status with Sengoku), winner of Shields vs Mayhem, Filho...

Mousasi said he has no desire to fight Hendo at the present since he wouldn't get any more money then he would for fighting lesser guys.

KJGould wrote:Mousasi said he has no desire to fight Hendo at the present since he wouldn't get any more money then he would for fighting lesser guys.

Jesus thats a bad attitude. I understand that money has to be taken into consideration, but to say that you wouldn't fight a legend of MMA, and continue to fight lesser opponents because you wouldn't get paid enough is appalling in my opinion.

On the plus side, I feel there are more chances for Hendo in Strikeforce, considering the relationship with Dream. A fight against Babalu would be great

Mousasi is younger than me give they guy a break! I woundnt rant to fight a grizzled veteran whos hands and face are made from Stone!! Give they guy a chance, Not Every fighter appears like Tyson and takes the world by storm in his early 20's, Mousasi has been fighting progressivly tougher opposition and thats what a young figher should be doing, the next crop of Suerstars dont need to be rushed into fights with current legends all the time, Hendo going after Fedor would be a credible fight I think, So for Mousasi not to want a part of Hendo yet ill give him a by ball on that one!

Dana White for all his failings is a really funny guy “I guarantee you 1,000 percent that Dan Henderson is signed by Strikeforce.” Well that will be funny if Hendo is signed to strikeforce, Dana just calls 'em like he sees 'em, Even if he isnt always right! Put I think Hendo is going to Strikeforce, What elce are his options! bring on Hendo vs Fedor I say, Hendo has paid his Dues in MMA and Diserves a crack at the lottery that is a Fedor fight before he hangs his gloves up. If Anyone was to hand Fedor his 1st loss I genuinley wouldnt mind seeing Hendo be the guy to do it he hasnt many years left in MMA and Fedor is still young enough. I think it would be a great fight, Hendo maby needs a solid win before he would walk into a fight with Fedor, but theres fights there for him.

Other fights for Hendo are good as well in Strikeforce, Especially if he fights at Mw and Lhw and has guys from Dream to fight, Dream would even use him for the New Years Show you could bet. Whos some Superfights for Hendo? I think thats what he would want at this stage of his career. Mousasi is one but he might not get that anytime soon!

I don't think Mousasi has anything to lose if he fights Henderson, barring perhaps his title. It's not as if he's trying to protect an unbeaten record. Dan would have to give him a bigger beating than he gave Bisping for people to start questioning Mousasi's capabilities. If the fight were to happen, although my money would be on Hendo, I'd reckon Mousasi would have a good chance against him.

KJGould wrote:Mousasi said he has no desire to fight Hendo at the present since he wouldn't get any more money then he would for fighting lesser guys.

Any sort of a source on that?? Can't imagine it to be true.

It was from an interview / article with Fighters Only, I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: Here it is

http://www.fightersonlymagazine.co.uk/news/viewarticle.php?id=3270

Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1) believes the prospect of Dan Henderson joining Strikeforce is an interesting one, but he is in no hurry to face the former PRIDE double-champion.

“I think if he would join Strikeforce that there are plenty of good match-ups for him, he would bring a lot of excitement with him,” he told Fighters Only tonight following days of speculation in the MMA media regarding Henderson possibly jumping the UFC ship.

And he added with a laugh, “I personally wouldn’t like to fight him, because if I fight a high-calibre fighter like Dan Henderson or a bum I would get paid the same, so there isn’t any motivation to fight a better fighter - although for the right money I would fight even Godzilla.”

Read rest on link above.

The comment may have been tongue in cheek, but I wouldn't blame him for wanting more money for a fight like that.

Agree, it's hard to tell if the comments were tongue in cheek or what.

I think Strikeforce would be best to keep them apart to begin with. In separate divisions. There's no point in Strikeforce diluting their weaker divisions(MW and LHW) by having the best fighters in those divisions fight each other. There are fights there for Mousasi, after Soko they could bring in Arona which would make for a great fight. Maybe make another run at getting Ninja in. Matt Lindland is still a top fighter(as long as he's not fighting Vitor!) and would definitely give Mousasi a good fight. If Rampage really is finished with the UFC, make him an offer. They missed out by not getting Tito. Tito vs Mousasi, Tito vs Henderson, Tito vs Babalu and Tito vs Glamrock 2 would have been 4 great fights that would have justified the contract Tito was after IMO. There's also great fights for Hendo with Lawlor, Shields, Filho, Babalu and Mayhem being the 5 obvious ones.

If Strikeforce had the following as their champions:

LW: Aoki
WW: Diaz
MW: Henderson
LHW: Mousasi
HW: Fedor

I think they'd have a legit claim to having the strongest group of champions in all of MMA. The Strikeforce/Dream co-operation agreement is the biggest thing to ever happen to MMA in my opinion. It brings together the number 2 and number 3 organizations in the MMA world. It allows a talent share from the two which puts them, as an entire entity, not that far behind the UFC in terms of top level fighters in each division(ahead in the LW and possibly WW and HW division stakes). It also means that for the first time ever there's a link like this between MMA in America and MMA in Asia. The truth of the matter is, Strikeforce/Dream will now be the most followed and watched MMA promotion going. UFC is still the number 1 promotion. It's still the biggest and for now it's the best. But they have legit competition now. Which is great for the sport. And great for fighters like Hendo who don't want to get shafted in the money stakes. Going to Strikeforce is the best thing for Hendo. He can fight in America and Japan, he will IMO become champion on both continents AND as he's getting closer to the end of his career he's looking to set himself for life. Being on CBS will mean far more exposure for him and his Team Quest camp which will lead to more students and sponsorship for them.

Hendo says he hasn't signed (yet)...

There's also the possibility of some of the Sengoku MW's and LHW's coming to fight in Strikeforce as well. Which means more competition for Hendo.

It's really hard not to like Hendo. Such a nice honest guy.

Also, an interesting point is made in that interview. Dana did announce that Hendo and Bisping would coach TUF, then fight and the winner would get a UFC title shot. You can bet that if Bitchping had won(was never EVER going to happen but if it had) then he would certainly have gotten his shot at Silva. Proves again that Bitchping is Dana's goldenboy and is one of the reasons a lot of fighters dislike him.

If Rampage has got fights remaining on his UFC contract, he's going to have a difficult time getting out of it to go elsewhere. Just look what happened to Randy Couture. It sounded like the legal fees he had to pay nearly made him bankrupt (possibly exageration, but it cost him a ton).

Aoki and Fedor as champs are the strongest cases for having the top guys (though until Penn loses at LW Aoki will be NO#2 permanently).

Diaz would be Top 10 (providing he fought at WW) but without fighting Shields that could be a problem.

Hendo would be Top 3, No#2 at the highest (or until Anderson loses at MW).

And Mousasi I think is ranked too high. Mousasi's win over Babalu was great and the best of his career, but I think that was his first fight at LHW since moving up from MW, and Babalu has been just outside the Top 10 for a couple of years now. Mousasi has yet to fight a Top 10 fighter in any weight class.

Anderson Silva has actively tried to avoid a rematch with Henderson and Dana has actively screwed Hendo out of the title shot he was promised. Gives Strikeforce a justifiable case for Hendo being the number 1 MW.

Aoki vs Penn we will probably never see. But if Penn loses to Sanchez, and if Aoki was to beat Melendez and Thompson, then Aoki is number 1. Strikeforce/Dream have the better group of 155ers IMO.

Fedor is the clear number 1 at HW.

Diaz is a top 6 or 7 WW. Possibly top 5. Shields is top 5 so having either of them as WW champion would be great for strikeforce.

LHW is their weakest division but Mousasi is top 10 in LHW's and one of the few people who would have a chance against Machida.



Randy and Rampage are in different situations. Randy Couture was the UFC HW champion and one of the biggest names in the history of the sport. Rampage is a great personality but he's not close to being the draw that Couture is, nor is he a champion.

Also, Couture had just signed a new contract prior to the Sylvia fight and was only 2 fights in. And his reasons for leaving were mostly financial. Rampage can cite Dana's recent comments as creating a hostile working environment.

Dana wouldn't let him leave without a fight but it would be easier for Rampage to get out than for Couture.

Yeah I think it would be easier for Rampage to leave, but I can still see Dana creating a lot of problems.

It really irks me UFC couldn't keep Hendo. His rematch with Silva was by far the easiest MW title fight to market. They can argue Hendo already lost to Silva, and a Belfort vs Silva fight is more interesting, but I guarantee more then double the mount of people saw Hendo KO Bisping then Belfort KO Franklin by virtue of UFC 100 and the TUF 9 hype. Hendo by far had more momentum going into a title fight then Belfort did, and he's more marketable now that UFC 100 made him an American hero. It was a completely wasted opportunity. And what's really stupid is Belfort could easily have fought next for the title. Either Belfort vs Silva, or Belfort vs Hendo II.

I think if UFC made him the offer they did, but guaranteed the first fight on his contract was a title fight, Hendo probably would have taken it. Instead UFC are insisting Hendo is asking for an unreasonable amount of money and are trying to do damage control by insisting there's no way he'd get what he asked for elsewhere. The thing is Hendo could ask for less from Strikeforce since he could get more in sponsorship money by fighting on CBS shows.

Exactly. And he's allowed to have any sponsors he wants in Strikeforce as opposed to those pre-approved by the UFC. And Strikeforce don't take a percentage the way the UFC do.

You're spot on about the way Hendo was built up as the American hero against Bisping and would have gone into the Silva fight with a massive following.

Did you see the video of the Scott Coker video where he was talking about Strikeforce doing PPV events next year and he said that he only wants to do 3 PPVs a year but have them be major fights? Basically he wants to run Strikeforce like boxing. Have monthly shows, but air them free on CBS and then when a big fight comes up, (say Fedor vs Overeem for an example) they'll build it for a couple of months and then have the show on PPV. I really like that business model. I really like the way Coker thinks.

I like Coker, but I am wary of how much he may need to compromise for Showtime and CBS. That model for next year certainly sounds reasonable though.

The Bellator president sounds pretty tuned in as well.

It's quite easy to bash Dana, and I respect what he's done for the UFC so far, but I can't make up my mind on him. Some days I like the guy and his attitude, and other times I can find myself getting frustrated and angry with him. He has the good qualities of a successful entrepreneur (and it was an entrepreneur that was needed to run the UFC and make it a success), but he has some pretty bad qualities no successful entrepreneur would want either.

I think Dana risks all the other organizations coming together and taking over from the UFC. With Bellator now established as the number 3 organization in the U.S and with them having agreements in place with the Japanese organizations over talent sharing it's not out of the question that they will link up with Strikeforce.

With those two, and the big two in Japan all sided against the UFC, it might not be good for Dana and his exclusive policies.

What surprises me is the Athletic Comissions not getting together again to create unified titles. I mean, they've developed the unified rules, they have power of regulating MMA, why not unified titles that haven't been created by promoters?

If the Athletic Comissions can make it so they will not recognise promoter created titles as legitimate, and if the Athletic Comissions insist on non-exclusive contracts under the threat of refusing promoter licenses, I think the sport could be freed up to grow beyond the confines of a particular promotional brand, and fighter pay would go up as promoters can compete financially with each other to put on title fights and solid fight cards.

Promoters would hate this though, and the UFC have powerful friends in the AC's but I think it needs to happen to see the fights we want to see.

Some could argue you would only get a good healdine event with a poor undercard because of having to pay the headline fighters a lot more money. Some could also argue PPV might go up in price, champs might fight less per year and less fights might get shown on free tv, but I think ultimately fans will vote with their wallets.

I want to see Lesnar vs Fedor, GSP vs Shields, Any Top 10 UFC LHW against Mousasi etc and I don't really care where it happens. I just want it to be promoted well so I'm aware of it, and I get to see it live on tv.

Anfields5thKingon Sat Nov 07, 2009 12:33 pm

Anderson Silva has actively tried to avoid a rematch with Henderson and Dana has actively screwed Hendo out of the title shot he was promised. Gives Strikeforce a justifiable case for Hendo being the number 1 MW.

Aoki vs Penn we will probably never see. But if Penn loses to Sanchez, and if Aoki was to beat Melendez and Thompson, then Aoki is number 1. Strikeforce/Dream have the better group of 155ers IMO.

Fedor is the clear number 1 at HW.

Diaz is a top 6 or 7 WW. Possibly top 5. Shields is top 5 so having either of them as WW champion would be great for strikeforce.

LHW is their weakest division but Mousasi is top 10 in LHW's and one of the few people who would have a chance against Machida.

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I love Hendo but there is no case in the world that would have him being the No1 ranked MW over Silva.

In his fights in the last two years he got beat by the No1 MW Silva,he ground out a UD win against Palhares,who to be fair is only really pushing for a top 20 ranking,he won a split decision against Franklin,a close fight in many thought Rich should of got the decision and KO'D an overhyped Bisping.

What part of that gives Strikeforce a case that says Hendo is No1?


I think that Strikeforce/Dreams top 10 LW are as good or maybe overall slightly better than the top 10 LW's in the UFC but the UFC crushes them when it comes to depth in their LW Division,every LW on the UFC rosta have good records,even there lower ranked LW fighters like your Fishers,Danzigs and Guillard are never going to be huge underdogs.Also last nights fight on Showtime between Gurgel and Evangelista was for the right to take on Thomson for the belt,which I thought was strange since Melindez surely should be Thomsons next fight to unify the belt,Evangelista won a very close fight but Gurgel couldn't even make the UFC's top 20 list never mind ever being a contender.


Fedor is the number 1 at HW but untill he fights and beats the UFC's top guns then there will always be doubts.

Diaz and Shields are both fighters that I would like to see in the UFC but neither of them have really faced elite fighters in there carears yet(apart from a washed up Shamrock)and Diaz didn't exactly light up the UFC last time did he,though forgetting that I think Diaz has improved ten fold from that time.

And with Moussasi,I think he may go on and prove he is one of the best LHW's out there but to say that after only one fight at LHW is a bit premature,he needs two or three good wins against good opposition before he can be classed as one of the best.
He should walk through Sokodjou though.

Well Hendo is number 2 Mw in the world. 3rd at worst. He is a great signing if Strikeforce get him. Mousasi has just said that he would rather fight Hendo than Arona because he thinks it would be a bigger fight. Id love to see that happen. Strikeforce could really do with strengthening their 205lbs devision. King Mo also adds a bit of life to the devision and if they can Sign Arona all the better.

Whats the Craic with Sengoku and Strikeforce? Randleman was allowed to fight over there.. Have Strikeforce a deal to share fighters with them like they do with Dream? Stanislav Nedkov would be a good adition being 10-0 with wins over Randleman and Travis Wiuff

rudeboyben84 wrote:Whats the Craic with Sengoku and Strikeforce? Randleman was allowed to fight over there.. Have Strikeforce a deal to share fighters with them like they do with Dream? Stanislav Nedkov would be a good adition being 10-0 with wins over Randleman and Travis Wiuff

Non exclusive contracts Ben, They can fight for any promotion they wish (with Strikeforce's blessing i assume).

Good to hear, keeps good relationships with other promotions. Did you hear Strikeforce has made two signings of "top Tier" heavyweights!

I wonder who they will be? I say Arlovski will be one. Id guess Monson for the other one... Maby Rizzo, Or I suppose theres a chance it could be Barnett.

Barnett will have to wait til after his appeal is heard. I reckon it'll be Monson and Arlovski. Wouldn't rule out Alexs though.

Sengoku fighters are free to fight for anyone in the US other than the UFC and Strikeforce fighters are free to fight for anyone outside the US. Good deal for everyone.