Dan Henderson thinks Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen bad for MMA, says he wasn't approached about TUF slot

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

One of the big questions that came up when the UFC decided to put Chael Sonnen in against Jon Jones on The Ultimate Fighter and in a title fight for next April was why they didn't stay with Dan Henderson. After all, Henderson was previously scheduled to meet Jones before a knee injury took him out of UFC 151, and with Jones not coming back until April it would have meant Henderson had time to recover.

He was the number one contender, and would have certainly been a better sporting option than Sonnen for the UFC to go with. And he's done the Ultimate Fighter once before, having coached against Michael Bisping back in 2009's ninth season. However, the UFC didn't even approach him about it.

Henderson confirmed as much on Wednesday in an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, and revealed that he would have gladly taken the Ultimate Fighter spot opposite Jones to lead into an April fight. With the UFC going with Sonnen, though, Henderson thinks they've made a major mistake.

"I absolutely think it was a bad decision for the sport," Henderson said. "It just makes the sport lose a little bit of integrity."

Still, while he disagrees with it, Henderson can understand why the UFC made the move, and he doesn't hold any ill will towards Sonnen for accepting the opportunity.

"Someone offers him a fight and great opportunity like that, why wouldn't he take it?" Henderson said. I understand that [Dana White] does what he does for the UFC and always has, first and foremost. He tries to accommodate the fighters as he can, but it's more about saving the ratings on The Ultimate Fighter show, and I understand that."

Penick's Analysis: The fact that the UFC didn't even think to approach Henderson about the coaching slot pokes a major hole in the arguments they put forward in favor of Sonnen-Jones. They said that no one wanted to fight Jones; well, Henderson did. They didn't even talk to him about TUF. They went for the ratings grab, and it may backfire on them when the fight finally comes around.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_14837.shtml

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