By Chamatkar Sandhu
Will Dan Henderson fight in the UFC again? At the moment this is all still up in the air as representatives of the fighter are locked in negotiations with the UFC over a new contract. ‘Hendo’ is in a very weird position in his pro MMA career coming off three straight losses for the first time ever. This means he has very litter leverage with regards to the amount of money he can demand from a new contract. Speaking to MMAFighting.com this week he shed some light on the whole situation
With regards to the first offer the UFC made on a new contract:
“I was fairly surprised that it’s as far away as what I thought I fair offer would have been. I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say I was insulted, but I know what they’re trying to accomplish and trying to get everybody for as cheap as they can. That’s what they like to do. I don’t take it personally, but it was a lot lower than I expected.”
“What I was asking for is a decent pay cut from what I was making. Which I thought was fair.”
When asked if the offer slashed his current deal by 50% and whether there is a deadline in place this is what Henderson said:
“I think that they’re trying to slash it quite a bit more than that. So, I just feel that that’s not realistic from where it should be. But we’re working on it.”
“I haven’t set a deadline, but it’s getting to that point. It’s getting to that point that it’s dragging on a little too long, and with the holidays and a couple of shows in December it did drag on a little bit. But I’m pretty sure we’ll get it figured out in the next week or two.”
On whether the UFC wants him back and whether he wants to say with the premier organisation in MMA:
“I think they want me to come back. I don’t want to go anywhere else, it’s not even in my mind right now and I don’t think they want me to go anywhere else either. It’s just something where we’re a little far apart, and we need to sit down and get it hashed out.”
Henderson’s theory as to why the initial offer was so low might be linked to PPV numbers according to him:
“I think, from what I’ve been hearing they’re trying to lower everyone’s purses win or lose, just because pay-per-view numbers aren’t as high as they used to be. They are having a lot more shows, a lot more pay-per-views, a lot more free cards, so obviously they’re going to do less PPVs when they’re offering so many more cards and shows. It’s just a little too watered down to get as many numbers as they used to on every pay-per-view card.”
Follow me on Twitter @ChamatkarSandhu
