Strikeforce light heavyweight champ Dan ‘Hendo’ Henderson (28-8) will reportedly make his return to the Octagon this November after a two year absence. He and opponent, former UFC champ Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (20-5) have verbally agreed to meet at the upcoming UFC 139 event.
News of the verbal agreements was posted by MMAWeekly.com on Monday night who learned of the matchup from “independent sources.”
UFC 139 is scheduled to take place on November 19 at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California.
The bout between Henderson and Rua will likely take the headlinig spot for the event, after the UFC heavyweight title bout between Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos was confirmed to the UFC on FOX 1 card on November 12.
Filling the co-main event spot will be a middleweight bout between Vitor Belfort and Cung Le, who makes his Octagon debut.
Henderson is coming off one of the biggest wins in his career after earning a first round TKO win over Fedor Emelianenko in a heavyweight bout last July. That bout marked the end of ‘Hendo’s’ contract with Strikeforce, having gone 3-1 which included a Strikeforce middleweight title loss to Jake Shields, and a light heavyweight title win over Rafael Cavalcante earlier this year.
Rua won a rematch over Forrest Griffin at last months UFC 134 event in Brazil, by stopping the original “TUF” winner with a first round knockout. That was ‘Shogun’s’ first fight in the Octagon since losing his title to Jon Jones in March at UFC 128. Rua’s record over his last three stands at 2-1, with a first round KO win against Lyoto Machida in their championship rematch.