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Dan Henderson: Jon Jones Has "a Lot to Improve On," Talks Shogun and UFC 139

Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Dan Henderson will be the most recent in a string of former Strikeforce champions who are making their move to the UFC this weekend when he fights former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun&rdquo…

A former multidivisional champion in Pride, “Hendo” has long been regarded as one of the top light heavyweight and middleweight competitors in the world. His unbelievable record speaks for itself, and although he has never held a title in the UFC, at 41 years old, he is as ready as ever to check that feat off his bucket list.

In fact, according to MMAWeekly’s Damon Martin, who interviewed the superstar 205-pounder on MMAWeekly Radio earlier this week, when Henderson signed his new contract with the UFC, he also asked to fight UFC champion Jon Jones immediately.

“I actually would have rather been in a fight for the title,” Henderson told MMAWeekly Radio. “Had Rashad said he was injured two or three weeks earlier, I probably would have had that fight instead of (Lyoto) Machida,” Henderson revealed.

Lyoto Machida will get his shot at Jones at UFC 140 in December, while Henderson is set to fight Shogun this Saturday night at UFC 139.

“This fight excites me too. Shogun’s a tough guy, and it’s gonna be a big challenge,” he said.

Despite being a bit disappointed that he’s not fighting for the UFC title, Henderson is not taking his UFC 139 opponent lightly. A former UFC light heavyweight champion, Shogun has fought some of the best in the world and come out on top.

“I think he’s always been a little bit hot and cold, but when he’s on, he’s a little dangerous and tough,” Henderson explained. “When he’s off, he’s still tough, just not quite as tough as he normally would be. Everybody has those days, but it seems like the last couple of years he’s been hot and cold.”

If Henderson defeats Shogun at UFC 139, it is expected that either he or Rashad Evans will be the No. 1 contender for the UFC light heavyweight title. Henderson is well aware of the current champion in the division and his meteoric rise up the rankings.

“I’m not one to buy into things too quickly. I’ve been doing this for a long time and seen a lot of guys beat a lot of tough guys really quick and then die out,” said Henderson of current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

“I think he’s going to be around a long time. He’s just going to get better. But at this point he’s still got a lot to improve on, and he’s athletic and talented, and he does learn. He’s got a huge future, but I think he’s got a little ways to go.”

In order to prove that theory right, though, Henderson will first have to make it through Shogun this weekend. If he does that, then we may really see the next champion vs. champion angle come to fruition in the UFC.

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Dana White: 8 Reasons the UFC President Is the Best Businessman in Sports

Saturday night’s UFC on FOX event was one of the biggest feats in the history of the organization and its President, Dana White. It has been years since the UFC has found its way onto network television and it has never received anywhere near t…

Saturday night’s UFC on FOX event was one of the biggest feats in the history of the organization and its President, Dana White.

It has been years since the UFC has found its way onto network television and it has never received anywhere near the amount of publicity and support that it did from FOX over the past few weeks and months.

White, a controversial but very up-front and honest businessman, has begun his ascent up the rankings of the best decision-makers in major sports today.

He may not currently have the notoriety that some of the others from the MLB, NBA and NFL have, but it is beginning to look more like he may very well be the best businessman of them all.

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UFC on FOX Results: Dos Santos vs. Velasquez Highlights Why MMA Is so Great

Sixty-four seconds. That’s how long it took for there to be a new champion when Junior dos Santos knocked out Cain Velasquez during Saturday night’s UFC on FOX event. After months of hype and a ton of money spent on advertisements throug…

Sixty-four seconds. That’s how long it took for there to be a new champion when Junior dos Santos knocked out Cain Velasquez during Saturday night’s UFC on FOX event.

After months of hype and a ton of money spent on advertisements throughout the past few weeks, it all came down to the unbelievable punching power possessed by our new Brazilian champion, dos Santos, who landed a huge punch to the temple of Velasquez before pouncing on him with ground-and-pound to finish the fight.

Knockouts are the kind of ending that fans typically love to see. Decisions are too boring for many “casual” fans, and submissions generally require quite a bit of work on the ground, which is also often-times too boring. Knockouts never fail to deliver with excitement.

However, for some reason, there seemed to be a fairly significant portion of “new fans,” and even some older ones, who were upset that the Velasquez-dos Santos fight ended so quickly.

Part of me can understand this mentality, especially if MMA is something that the viewer is brand new to. It can be hard to really understand the more integral parts of the sport when there is absolutely no ground game involved and a potentially 25-minute fight ends in approximately one minute.

But for anyone who has seen the sport at all before, it’s completely unacceptable to be complaining about a knockout! I mean, really, what more do you want?

The sports of mixed martial arts is great largely because of its unpredictability. There are very obvious winners and losers with just about every other sport, but when two athletes step into the cage in a mixed martial arts bout, it often times simply comes down to who makes fewer mistakes. One simple slip can lead to one punch or kick, it can lead to a submission, it can lead to a million different things.

At UFC on FOX, Velasquez left himself open, and dos Santos pounced on his opportunity. Shouldn’t we be praising that instead of complaining about how short the fight was?

I’m completely in agreement that it would have been great to have more than one fight on the card for a situation like this, but it’s not the end of the world. If anything, it highlights what’s so great about MMA—you just never know what’s going to happen.

If you don’t like how the fight finished, as Dana White said in the post-fight press conference, please “shut up” and let the rest of us enjoy it. We don’t need your negativity. We simply want to enjoy our favorite sport, and we’re never going to disrespect someone for finishing the fight too early.

What a ridiculous complaint.

Be sure to stay tuned to Bleacher Report for all things UFC on FOX. B/R is your home for post-fight analysis of the Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos fight card. Also, be sure to check out our fight card hub page for news and opinion on the entire UFC on FOX fight card.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on FOX: Are Kimbo Slice, Brock Lesnar Still MMA’s Biggest Heavyweight Stars?

Last night’s UFC on FOX event might be the most important night in the history of the Zuffa-owned promotion. The return to network television will help enlighten an entirely new group of fans who may have previously viewed mixed martial arts …

The main event between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos exposed many of these fans to the current heavyweight title scene, with these two fighters being the top of the class at the current moment. Even though the fight only lasted one minute, it’s hard to deny that the No. 1 heavyweight in the world—Junior dos Santos—got all the exposure that a champion should.

Unfortunately for him and the UFC, the truth is that although he and Velasquez got way more coverage going into their fights, neither of them is close to being in the top two biggest draws in the history of the heavyweight division in MMA.

That title goes to former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar—and Kimbo Slice.

Don’t confuse what I’m trying to say here—by no means am I saying that Slice or even Lesnar are better than dos Santos—they’re simply bigger stars… and the numbers prove it.

Brock Lesnar has never fought on free TV for the UFC, so it’s hard to really compare his numbers directly to what Velasquez and dos Santos did last night, but his pay-per-view numbers completely shatter anything that Velasquez or dos Santos have done.

The UFC has seven pay-per-views in its history that have gone over 1 million buys. Four of them have involved Brock Lesnar in the main event. Meanwhile, Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez have only combined to be in one main event of a PPV that has gone over one million buys—and it happened when Velasquez fought Lesnar.

Until Velasquez or dos Santos is able to headline an event and bring in a huge crowd, it’s hard to believe that either of them is a bigger star than Lesnar is right now… It’s even harder to believe that they are as popular as Lesnar was in the height of his popularity.

As for Kimbo Slice, the former backyard brawler has been involved in some of the most-watched MMA events in the history of the sport. He may not be very skilled, he may not have ever been a champion, but he was the definition of a superstar in the sport of mixed martial arts.

Slice headlined a fight card for EliteXC in May 2008 against James Thompson, on the CBS network. At 4.85 million viewers, the fight card was watched by nearly twice as many viewers as the following EliteXC on CBS event that did not feature Kimbo. In fact, that number was slightly better than original estimates which suggested that UFC on FOX had only 4.64 million viewers (this number was later corrected to 5.7 million viewers).

… and that was without the UFC promoting the event!

Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez are rightfully ranked above both Lesnar and Slice, but although they have the UFC fully invested in them, so it may very well happen at some point, they have a long way to go before they can compete with either Lesnar or Slice in terms of being stars.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on FOX Results: TV Ratings Not Amazing, Not Terrible Either

When Dana White announced that the UFC was going to be on network television, long-time fans began speaking about their favorite sport as finally breaking into the mainstream. It certainly did that with the main event heavyweight fight between Cain…

But just how successful was the event in terms of the almighty television ratings?

Early estimates brought serious concerns as MMAJunkie and other reputable sources reported that the inaugural UFC on FOX event might have only brought in about 4.64 million viewers.

While this number would’ve still been decent, it certainly was a disappointing number as the event put quite a bit of time and money into promoting this fight, even setting up a red carpet event with celebrities to help draw in more of the casual audience.

Many believed that the fight lasting only about a minute may have had a big negative impact on the numbers as many fans likely tuned in for the bout and then flipped the channel back to another program once the actual fight itself was over with.

This makes a lot of sense as we have seen this kind of thing happen in the past, especially in combat sports.

However, new reports have now come in that are estimating UFC on FOX as having a significantly better rating, more around the 5.7 million mark than the originally speculated 4.64 million.

As expected, this makes the event the most-viewed event in UFC history, narrowly edging out the Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson fight on episode three of The Ultimate Fighter: The Heavyweights in September 2009.

The record-breaking night is great for the UFC, but it further highlights the point that although Velasquez and dos Santos are unquestionably better fighters, they simply are not on the same level of mainstream popularity that a “freakshow” like Slice was at in the height of his popularity.

If the original estimates were correct, there could have been some seriously upset executives. However, given these updated numbers and the circumstances of the competition it was up against on Saturday night, it’s hard to think that the event was anything but a success.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC on FOX Results: The Real Winners and Losers from Velasquez vs. Dos Santos

Perhaps the biggest event in the history of mixed martial arts is now complete after an exciting main event between Junior dos Santos and Cain Velasquez for the UFC heavyweight championship of the world. Bleacher Report is here with this and the rest o…

The UFC made its network television return tonight on FOX with this extremely important fight. As UFC President Dana White said in the pre-fight analysis, it was important for the organization to put its “best foot forward.”

It did just that.

The main event was obviously the main course, but the appetizers were amazing tonight as well.

So without further, let’s take a look at the real winners and losers from what was perhaps the most important night in the history of the entire sport of mixed martial arts.

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