Mixed martial arts veteran, and sure to be a UFC Hall of Famer, Dan ‘Hendo’ Henderson recently turned down a fight versus Antonio Rogerio Nogueira which was reported on Tuesday night during UFC Tonight on Fuel TV.
On Wednesday, the former PRIDE and Strikeforce champion explained his reasons for turning down the fight during a segment on Clinch Gear Radio (hit play to hear the segment).
“I was under the impression that [Dana White] was still kinda on the fence on whether he was gonna put me in front of Rashad (Evans) or not. That’s assuming Rashad wins. He did offer me a fight with little Nogueira and I didn’t think the fans would be interested in that fight and it’s not as much time as I’d like to prepare for a five round fight. So I told him I’d wait and see what happens with the Rashad fight. I would like to fight Jones now rather than if I took that fight with Little Nog. I wouldn’t be fighting Jones for another eight, ninth months. I’m okay waiting a little bit. It was more about having the time to prepare and I did inquire to say ‘Hey, I would be interested in doing it if it was a three round fight,’ I could have time to prepare.”
Nogueira will instead face Alexander Gustafsson at the UFC’s first card in Sweden.
The two have faced one another before back in Arpil 2005 at a PRIDE Total Elimination 2005 event, in the opening round of the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix. The bout would end in a victory for ‘Little Nog’ who finished Henderson with a first round submission (armbar).