A middleweight fight between Dan Henderson and Tim Boetsch has been boosted to the main event of UFC Fight Night 68 in New Orleans on June 6th after the original headliner fell through.
The UFC’s initial plan had been to have a fight between Daniel Cormier and Ryan Bader top the bill, but of course Cormier has since been switched to a title encounter with Anthony Johnson at UFC 187 later this month instead.
With options few and far between as far as suitable replacements go to fight Bader, the UFC took the decision to pull him from the event completely.
Henderson heads into this fight desperately seeking a victory as he’s coming off back-to-back losses and has just one victory in his last six Octagon outings.
Perhaps most worryingly for the 44 year-old is the fact that there’s finally been signs that his in the past seemingly indestructable chin may be weakening, with a head kick KO loss to Vitor Belfort and first round TKO defeat to Gegard Mousasi on his recent record.
So, at this stage it’s really ‘Hendo’s’ past reputation in the sport that’s keeping him afloat, though in all fairness he has been facing a consistent line-up of top-flight talent.
With that in mind Boetsch could be considered a slightly less fearsome opponent than he’s been getting of late, but it’s all relative, with ‘The Barbarian’ still good enough to rank No.13 on the official middleweight rankings.
The 34 year-old Boetsch has been struggling for form himself in the past few years though, frequently alternating between wins and losses and he’s coming off a submission loss to Thales Leites last time out.
This is a big fight for him as he looks to boost his profile with a win over a legend while also maintaining a spot on the middleweight rankings, while for Henderson this is all about proving he still has what it takes to compete, fending off talk of retirement for a little while longer.
