It emerged last week that the UFC were looking into a potential fight between Daniel Cormier and Rafael ‘Feijao’ Cavalcante for UFC 175, but it’s fair to say the match-up was met with a lukewarm reception from fans.
It may well be that they’ve taken heed of that as it’s now being rumored that Cormier is in talks to potentially fight Dan Henderson at the event, which takes place in July in Las Vegas, instead.
Henderson is coming off a TKO victory over Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua last month which has left him just one place behind Cormier at No.6 on the official 205lb rankings, so he would definitely make a lot more sense for the former Strikeforce heavyweight Grand-Prix to face next rather than ‘Feijao’ who’s currently at No.13.
Don’t get too excited yet though, as while UFC President Dana White hasn’t denied that they are working on the fight, he did take to Twitter to state that it’s by no means official.
“Hendo vs Cormier isn’t a done deal and not even close,” White said.
The 43 year-old Henderson got pretty banged up in his last fight with ‘Shogun’, having been rocked several times before turning the tables in the third round, and it may be that he’d like more than three months before taking on his next bout.
It’s also worth noting that his next fight will be his first for some time without the aid of Testosterone Replacement Therapy due to the recent ban on the practice, so it may take him some time to adjust to that.
Nevertheless, Henderson has stated that he wants to work his way towards a title shot as quickly as possible, and a win over Cormier would be a huge step in the right direction.
UFC 175 will be headlined by a middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and Lyoto Machida and Cormier Vs Henderson would make an excellent co-main event, so hopefully they can make it happen.
