Dan Henderson’s decision to pull out of his UFC 151 title fight with Jon Jones due to a knee injury set off a chain of events that would lead to the event being the first ever in the history of the promotion to be canceled, and now the former PRIDE and Strikeforce champion admits he’s not sure if he’s still in line for a title shot when he returns.
“I don’t know,” Henderson said when asked on InsideMMA if he would still get to fight for the belt next. “I didn’t ask what was gonna happen if I didn’t take the fight. It wasn’t going to be a part of my decision making process. I wanted to make sure I made the right decision for the right reasons.
“I still don’t know what’s gonna happen. I can only hope that I’m still in line for that title shot.”
Whether he is or isn’t, Henderson expects to be fit again by the end of the year.
“No surgery is needed, luckily, but I’ve just got to immobilize it and ice it a lot for the next three or four weeks and then rehab it a little bit. Hopefully, they said I’d be 100 percent in three to four months.”
Personally, I think he will still get the next shot at Jones. He had a legitimate reason to pull out of their originally scheduled bout, and he remains one of the few genuine challengers left out there at 205lbs who people want to see fight the champion so it’s hard to see the UFC turning their back on him now.
