Michael David Smith spoke with Henderson's camp and they deny they are close to signing with Strikeforce:
Responding to a Yahoo Sports reportthat Henderson is "on the verge of signing" with Strikeforce, Henderson's friend and business partner Aaron Crecy said that wasn't the case, and that no signing with anyone is imminent.
"We had a brief get-to-know-you session with (Strikeforce) and met them for coffee, but to say he's close to signing would be a gross misrepresentation," Crecy said.
When reached by FanHouse, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said, "We've had dialogue with Dan but that's all I'd like to say."
A few notes and our own Matt Bishop pretty much nailed what's going on in Henderson's mind in my opinion in the comments section of the initial post.
-Dan Henderson isn't a huge name to casual fans, regardless of him knocking out Michael Bisping in front of millions of eyeballs.
-If Dana White let Andrei Arlovski go to the competition, he'll let Dan Henderson go.
-Can Strikeforce even afford to pay what Dan Henderson is asking in regards to salary? Remember, they don't have PPV to use as a way to pay a portion the salary he's asking for. If they did have PPV, it still wouldn't be as much as a UFC card, provided Henderson gets a percentage of the PPV buys.
-As someone else mentioned, Dan Henderson lost both unification bouts in the UFC. So they hold that card over him and Strikeforce provided he goes there. Also, they don't have the rights to any footage to promote him, which is the same problem they have with Fedor Emelianenko.
I'd be surprised to see Henderson go to Strikeforce at this stage of his career. He's almost 40 years old, and to leave a sure thing like the UFC wouldn't really make sense. I think he's posturing, and White is calling him on it. I expect to see him back in the UFC early 2010.
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