Dan Henderson targeting probable middleweight return in January

Even at 44 years old, Dan Henderson isn’t opposed to a little reinvention. The former Pride and Strikeforce champion, who remains in the midst of a career-worst slump, told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani on Wednesday that he is “for sure” eyeing a fight in January, and that it would “probably” be at middleweight, as reported on UFC Tonight.

Henderson (30-12) competed at middleweight for a large chunk of his professional fighting career, but hasn’t done so since dropping a hard-fought unanimous decision to then-Strikeforce champion Jake Shields in mid-2010.

Henderson, a veteran of the game who has traditionally abhorred weight cutting, cited the fact that his size disadvantage would be far less of a concern against fighters at 185 pounds than it was at 205 pounds. “Hendo” has lost four of his last five UFC contests dating back to 2013, dropping back-to-back decision losses to Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, then suffering decisive defeats at the hands of Vitor Belfort and Daniel Cormier.

His only win over that stretch came in a rematch of his legendary war of attrition against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Meeting nearly three years after their first contest, Henderson survived an onslaught of early damage to finish Rua with a dramatic third-round H-bomb.

The performance briefly propelled Henderson back into title contention, however he went on to roundly lose to Cormier just two months later. Regardless, “Hendo” remains the No. 7 ranked light heavyweight on the UFC’s media-generated rankings.

Henderson told MMAFighting.com in October he had been in talks with UFC officials to fight on Jan. 3 at UFC 182. Nothing, however, has been finalized as of this writing.

Even at 44 years old, Dan Henderson isn’t opposed to a little reinvention. The former Pride and Strikeforce champion, who remains in the midst of a career-worst slump, told MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani on Wednesday that he is “for sure” eyeing a fight in January, and that it would “probably” be at middleweight, as reported on UFC Tonight.

Henderson (30-12) competed at middleweight for a large chunk of his professional fighting career, but hasn’t done so since dropping a hard-fought unanimous decision to then-Strikeforce champion Jake Shields in mid-2010.

Henderson, a veteran of the game who has traditionally abhorred weight cutting, cited the fact that his size disadvantage would be far less of a concern against fighters at 185 pounds than it was at 205 pounds. “Hendo” has lost four of his last five UFC contests dating back to 2013, dropping back-to-back decision losses to Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans, then suffering decisive defeats at the hands of Vitor Belfort and Daniel Cormier.

His only win over that stretch came in a rematch of his legendary war of attrition against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Meeting nearly three years after their first contest, Henderson survived an onslaught of early damage to finish Rua with a dramatic third-round H-bomb.

The performance briefly propelled Henderson back into title contention, however he went on to roundly lose to Cormier just two months later. Regardless, “Hendo” remains the No. 7 ranked light heavyweight on the UFC’s media-generated rankings.

Henderson told MMAFighting.com in October he had been in talks with UFC officials to fight on Jan. 3 at UFC 182. Nothing, however, has been finalized as of this writing.