Dan Henderson (Pictured) is reportedly a former Strikeforce employee. According to MMAWeekly, Henderson will vacate his light heavyweight title to meet Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 139. The HP Pavilion in San Jose, California will host the November 19th event.
Henderson emerged as MMA’s hottest free agent after knocking out Fedor Emelianenko this past July. The 41-year-old has rattled off three consecutive victories since dropping a unanimous decision loss to Jake Shields in his Strikeforce debut in April 2010.
The report did not mention the terms of Hendo’s new contract.
After losing the 205-pound title to reigning champ Jon Jones at UFC 128, Shogun rebounded nicely by slapping Forrest Griffin silly last month at UFC 134. The Brazilian has alternated between wins and losses over his last five scraps.
The former Pride FC superstars are expected to headline the pay-per-view broadcast.
Here are the athletes expected to appear in the show:
Gleison Tibau vs. Rafael Dos Anjos
Zhang Tie Quan vs. Darren Elkins
Chris Weidman vs. Tom Lawlor
Stephan Bonnar vs. Kyle Kingsbury
Jason Brilz vs. Ryan Bader
Rick Story vs. Martin Kampmann
Vitor Belfort vs. Cung Le
Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles
Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua