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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Dan Henderson is on his way back to the UFC, and according to MMAWeekly.com, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua will welcome him back to the Octagon on November 19 at UFC 139.
Henderson returns to the UFC for the first time since UFC 100 in July of 2009, and enters on the heels of a three fight winning streak in Strikeforce. He left the UFC in the fall of 2009 after failing to come to terms with the organization on a new contract. Though he lost a decision to Jake Shields in his Strikeforce debut at middleweight, he returned to prominence at 205 lbs. over his next three fights.
A knockout win over Renato "Babalu" Sobral in December got him a title fight with Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante, whom he also knocked out this March. Then, in the final fight on his contract in July, Henderson took out Fedor Emelianenko in a heavyweight bout.
"Shogun" enters the fight off a first round TKO victory over Forrest Griffin last month. The win bounced him back from a loss to Jon Jones in March, taking the Light Heavyweight Title from him.
The two former Pride stars will fight to determine the next challenger in the division after Rashad Evans, who will meet the winner of this weekend's UFC 135 bout between Jones and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
UFC 139 will air live on pay-per-view from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. on Nov. 19, one week after the UFC's historic debut on Fox.
Penick's Analysis: This was the fight that I wanted to see after Henderson's win over Fedor in July, as it made the most sense and gave Henderson his quickest path to the title fight that he wants in the UFC. This is a fantastic fight, and gives this UFC 139 card a legitimate headlining fight, as the Vitor Belfort vs. Cung Le bout just would not have cut it. That's a good middleweight fight from a number of standpoints, but as a headliner it would have been an awful move. This fight is excellent in that role as a non-title fight, and with the UFC looking to have five round non-title fights for most events, it would have to be assumed that this fight will be a five rounder. This is very welcome news overall.
[Dan Henderson art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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