LAS VEGAS — Dan Henderson seems under the impression he’s been guaranteed a shot at the UFC light heavyweight championship, should he defeat Daniel Cormier Saturday night at UFC 173.
“The reason why I took it is because [UFC president] Dana [White] said the winner gets a title shot, so I said, alright,” Henderson told MMAFighting.com in Los Angeles on Monday.
But White isn’t committed to the idea that the former PRIDE and Strikeforce champ will get such a shot. On Thursday, he said there’s too much time between now, the expected Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson rematch, and a potential fight between the Cormier-Henderson winner and Jones-Gustafsson victor, to go making any projections.
“Obviously if Hendo pulls off this upset, it’s huge, huge,” White told reporters at the MGM Grand. “He pulls off the upset against Shogun [Rua], he pulls off a huge upset against Cormier, we’ll see. … Its just stupid to talk about now because [Jones] is fighting Gustafsson, and that fight’s not happening until fall, and we still gotta get through that fight, and then we see where he’s at. Who’s to say Cormier and Henderson, whoever wins this fight, doesn’t want to take a fight between now and then? Or if they get hurt, anything can happen.”
White also indicated that regardless of who wins Saturday night’s co-main event, no one is cutting the line ahead of Gustafsson.
“Gustafsson deserves that fight,” White said. “That fight was razor thin, it was an amazing fight, he fought another fight, Jones fought, it’s time for that fight.”