Dan Henderson: Super Bowl Showdown with Lyoto Machida Targeted for UFC 156 on Feb. 2

Henderson revealed the news on Thursday night’s new episode of “MMA Uncensored Live” on Spike TV, though an official announcement has not yet come from the promotion. UFC 156 takes place Feb. 2 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas and will be headlined by a featherweight title collision between reigning 145-pound champion Jose Aldo and ex-lightweight ruler Frankie Edgar.

Henderson was supposed to challenge Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title at UFC 151 but was forced to withdraw from the bout on short notice due to injury. A former two-division Pride Fighting Championships titlist, Henderson is known for his wrestling ability and sledgehammer right hand. After winning Strikeforce’s light heavyweight belt last year, the 42-year-old re-emerged in the Octagon roughly one year ago, taking a bloody unanimous decision from the highly-regarded Mauricio Rua in a “Fight of the Year” nominee at UFC 139.

Following Henderson’s withdrawal from the UFC 151 main event, Machida was offered a title fight at UFC 152 four weeks later. However, the former UFC champion declined the opportunity on the grounds that he would not be able to conduct a full training camp to prepare for a rematch with Jones. Machida, 34, looked sharp in his last in-cage appearance, as the karateka knocked Ryan Bader cold with a perfectly-timed counter right hand on Aug. 4 at UFC on Fox 4.