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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Dan Henderson injured his knee last month, forcing him out of a bout against Jon Jones at UFC 151. Lyoto Machida subsequently turned down a bout with Jones for UFC 152, a move which pushed him out of a guaranteed title shot following his UFC on Fox 4 knockout over Ryan Bader.
Now, the two light heavyweight competitors could be facing off against one another to determine the next #1 contender for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
According to a report from Dave Meltzer at MMAFighting.com, UFC President Dana White quipped on Thursday to a group of reporters that the UFC is targeting a bout between Henderson and Machida later this year. Meltzer confirmed further that it was the direction the UFC is currently looking at pursuing.
There's no date set for the bout, and it hasn't yet been agreed to, but it would provide a clear number one contender in the division depending on when the bout took place.
Penick's Analysis: The only way the fight will bring about the next title challenger after Vitor Belfort later this month is if it takes place by November's UFC 154 event. Henderson won't be ready to go by Oct. 13 for UFC 153, and if the UFC was going to attempt that route they would have done so already. However, if the fight takes place after UFC 154, I'm not sure how they get one of those two into a title fight next. Unless they're looking to keep Jones sidelined for six-eight months, they'd be better served to keep Henderson in the next title fight and book it for Super Bowl weekend in 2013. That would be four and a half months for Jones, and Henderson would have time to heal. If you toss this fight together, however, you're left with a really quick turnaround for the challenger, or keeping Jones sidelined for an extended period of time. This is just curious news considering the state of the 205 lb. division, unless of course they target something else for Jones entirely following the UFC 152 event next week.
[Dan Henderson art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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