At the post-fight press conference in Atlanta, GA, after Jon Jones’ dominant decision victory over Rashad Evans at UFC 145, UFC president Dana White confirmed our suspicions that Dan Henderson will be the next man to challenge champion Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship.
No timeline for the contest was given, but we should expect it to be sometime between July and September.
Dan Henderson is current riding a four-fight win streak that includes a knockout over legendary heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko, and a decision win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua that Dana White has called one of the top three fights in MMA history.
Henderson was a dual-division champion in PRIDE and the most recent Strikeforce light heavyweight champ.
The 24-year-old Jones, meanwhile, defeated Shogun Rua at UFC 128 to win the belt last March, and has now successfully defended his championship three times against Quinton Jackson, Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans.
If Jones can get past Henderson, he will have cleaned out the stacked light heavyweight division, minus rising contender Alexander Gustafasson (though conversations regarding Gustafsson being thrust into the title picture seem premature at the moment).
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com