After defeating four former UFC light heavyweight champions in a row, reigning 205-pound kingpin Jon “Bones” Jones was obviously going to be favored against his next Octagon adversary—Dan Henderson.
However, even the biggest Jones supporters would be hard-pressed to argue that nearly 6-to-1 odds were expected.
Nevertheless, that’s what a number of major sports betting sites have come up with recently, even though Jones vs. Henderson isn’t assigned to a venue yet.
Bookmaker has Jones as -565 and Henderson at +385, while 5dimes sees it as Hendo at +420 and Jones at -650.
Sportbet has also weighed in on the upcoming light heavyweight match up and gave odds identical to the ones set by 5dimes.
What does Dan Henderson think about all this? One fan already asked the former Olympian wrestler on Twitter:
Love it. RT @OzFairchild: @danhendo how do you feel about opening up a 6-1 underdog to @Jonnybones?
— Dan Henderson (@danhendo) April 28, 2012
Jones is fresh off a unanimous decision victory over former Greg Jackson’s MMA teammate and friend Rashad Evans and has now rattled off seven wins in a row.
The youngest champion in UFC history had a career year in 2011 by defeating Ryan Bader, Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida—none of which managed to go the distance.
As impressive as that is, let’s not already put Henderson in the loser column of this fight.
The former PRIDE star is on a four-fight win streak, also having his hand raised in seven of his past eight bouts, which includes back-to-back wins over Fedor Emelianenko and Rua.
Henderson has never been knocked out in his nearly 15-year fight career and still packs a very powerful punch, so one could argue that he poses challenges that Jones has not encountered yet.
The fight was rumored to headline UFC 149 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, but with the UFC all but announcing that their featherweight champion Jose Aldo will defend his belt against Erik Koch, suddenly makes Jones vs. Henderson unlikely for the card.
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