Dan Henderson wants to make one thing clear to all those fans and fighters complaining over his selection as Michael Bisping’s opponent at UFC 204 later this year.
“First things first, there is a broad misconception that I asked for this fight. I did not,” Henderson wrote in a blog entry on Champions.co. “This is a fight that I think Bisping has wanted for a while, but I didn’t ask to fight him. It came about because 1. We fought on the same card with both of us scoring two impressive victories, and 2. The fans have overwhelmingly requested this rematch.”
Back at UFC 100, Henderson scored a dominating finish of Bisping and “The Count” almost immediately called for a rematch following his own victory vs. Luke Rockhold that netted him the UFC middleweight title.
Henderson believes that several factors could be providing him with an advantage as the two prepare for their fight later this fall.
“He has his little distractions, too. I heard Amir Khan wants to try his hand at MMA against Conor McGregor and that Michael has offered to train him. A lot of guys from other sports come into MMA and have these big expectations with a lot of excitement behind them, but once they get involved in the training, they kind of get their eyes opened,” Henderson wrote. “I’m not sure how Khan will do in this sport. I wish him the best but we will have to wait and see. I hope Mike does train him, and I hope it’s while he’s training for me.
“I’ve been a world champion before, a few times, and one thing I tried to do was to take it all in stride and not make a big deal out of it. You’re the champ and the people in the MMA community know that. When I look at Bisping, he’s doing exactly what you would expect him to do; talk a lot about himself, praise himself and be his own biggest fan.”
