Henderson celebrating his win over Rafael Cavalcante

By FCF Staff

After losing an opportunity to fight Jon Jones in September due to a knee injury, Dan Henderson is expected to fight Lyoto Machida next, and according to the fighter the bout will likely take place February 2nd.

Henderson relayed the information regarding the fight while appearing on Spike TV’s MMA Uncensored Live program Thursday night. UFC 156 will take place Super Bowl Weekend at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The former Pride and Strikeforce champion has not competed since November, 2011, when Henderson (29-8) worked his way to a unanimous decision win over “Shogun” Rua.

Although the knee injury which forced Henderson’s withdrawal from UFC 151 did not require surgery, the promotion elected to match Chael Sonnen opposite Jones on the next edition of TUF. The two are expected to fight in April.

Machida (18-3) is coming off a memorable knockout win over Ryan Bader in August, which was expected to secure the former champion a rematch with Jones. After Machida decided to not fight Jones at UFC 152 on short notice, however, the decorated fighter was passed over and will now fight Henderson.

The UFC has not made any formal announcement about the reported Henderson, Machida bout, however, UFC President Dana White has stated that the fight was likely.