Over the past few hours rumors that Dan Henderson is set to pull out of his UFC 151 title fight with Jon Jones next weekend due to an injury have been spreading like wildfire on the internet.
I should stress up front that it really is just a rumor, but there’s enough smoke here to suggest there could be a fire.
It all started when Kenny Florian posted on Twitter the following ominous message.
“Hearing that we may have some disappointed @UFC fans soon due to some unfortunate circumstances for an upcoming card,” Florian wrote.
He was backed up by respected journalist Jeremy Botter who also noted on Twitter that, “If what I’m hearing is correct, UFC 151 may be in desperate need of a main event. And that sucks.”
Henderson was then pinpointed as the man some insiders believe may be injured – possibly his right knee – but adding to the confusion surrounding the story, the man himself posted soon after suggesting that nothing was wrong.
“Just got done with a great training session with the boys. @CyrilleDiabate @tarecfighter @heathlsims,” Hendo posted.
The catch is that one of the fighters Henderson claims to have just been training with, Tarec Saffiedine, then responded to a fan enquiring about the story in a way that continued to leave a big question mark hanging over the entire situation.
“Havent seen him since my fight. Idk, hope its not true!!” the Strikeforce fighter responded.
Whether it’s true or not, another of the fighters Hendo mentioned, fellow UFC fighter Cyrille Diabate, was seeing the funny side of it.
“Speculations in all directions!!! If someone wants the TRUTH concerning @danhendo …just wire me $100 000!”
So, is the rumor true? I honestly can say for sure right now. It’s possible he does have some kind of an injury, but is intending to fight through it and as such is attempting to play down the speculation.
On the other hand there may be no truth to it whatsoever – let’s face it, it wouldn’t be the first time that’s been the case, but the fact that neither Hendo nor anyone from his camp has come out and denied it yet only adds fuel to the flames.
I certainly hope it’s not true – UFC 151 is quite frankly a weak card without that big main event and it’s hard to see the organization being able to bring in a worthy replacement to fight the champion on just 10 days notice.
Hopefully we’ll get confirmation one way or another in the next 24 hours regarding this matter so stay tuned for the latest updates.
