Daniel Cormier may potentially land on UFC 173, either against Dan Henderson or Ryan Bader

The UFC’s upcoming summer schedule remains in flux, and now that UFC 173 has lost its heavyweight co-main event, a former heavyweight may soon be added to bolster the event’s pay-per-view card.
UFC officials are in discussions to shift a l…

The UFC’s upcoming summer schedule remains in flux, and now that UFC 173 has lost its heavyweight co-main event, a former heavyweight may soon be added to bolster the event’s pay-per-view card.

UFC officials are in discussions to shift a lightweight heavyweight contest between Daniel Cormier (14-0) and Dan Henderson (30-11) to May 24th at UFC 173, according to a report from UFC Tonight‘s Ariel Helwani.

The bout is currently tentatively scheduled to take place a month and a half later, on July 5th at UFC 175.

Nothing is finalized as of this writing, as it is unclear whether Henderson will be able to receive clearance to fight so soon after his brutal March 23rd duel against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua — a fight in which Henderson was nearly finished twice before storming back to knock out Rua.

In the event that Henderson is unable to be medically cleared, UFC officials are also considering bringing in top-10 ranked light heavyweight contender Ryan Bader (16-4) to challenge Cormier, although again, nothing is finalized.

A battle between top-ranked heavyweights Junior dos Santos and Stipe Miocic was initially slated to co-headline UFC 173. However, that fight ultimately replaced Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva as the main event of a May 31st UFC Fight Night card in Sao Paulo, Brazil, while Sonnen vs. Silva shifted to the co-main event of UFC 175.

An updated UFC 173 fight card can be seen below.