A middleweight fight between Dan Henderson and Gegard Mousasi has been announced as the co-main event for UFC On FOX 14 in Stockholm, Sweden on January 24th.
Henderson will be returning to the middleweight division for the first time in over four years after experiencing turbulent waters in the light-heavyweight class, losing four of his last five fights.
His sole victory during the last two years came with a third round TKO victory against Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua back in March, while his losses were against top competition like Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Vitor Belfort and most recently Daniel Cormier who submitted him by rear-naked choke.
The 44 year-old had previously been reluctant to return to 185lbs due to it being a tough weight cut at this stage in his career, but he’s now willing to throw caution to the wind as he tries to get back on track.
In Mousasi he faces an experienced fighter who’s been struggling to find consistency himself of late. Like ‘Hendo’, he’s been facing some of his division’s best, coming up short against Lyoto Machida and most recently Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, while also earning a first round submission win against Mark Munoz in 2014, leaving him placed at No.8 on the official rankings.
Henderson Vs Mousasi serves as the co-main event in what’s shaping up to be Sweden’s biggest MMA event to date with hometown hero Alexander Gustafsson set to face Anthony Johnson in a 205lb title eliminator main event.
Adding to the occasion, the UFC are planning to hold the event at the 30,000 seater Tele2 Arena in Stockholm – only the second time in the history of the promotion that they will be putting an event on in a stadium.
To accomodate the fact that the event will air live on FOX n the evening in the U.S, the main card of the show will actually take place at 2am in Sweden.
