ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

When Jon Jones fought Andre Gusmao at UFC 87, "Bones" was already a practitioner of creative hostility.

At the time, Jones was trying out unusual kicks and punches in a shed in upstate New York, envisioning those spinning elbows and saddle throws that fall under the umbrella of judo. He knew, even then, that he could "dirty box" from three feet out of harm's reach. I remember Tandam McCrory, the lank Barn Cat, preaching Jones’ use of range from back in those days.

The thing is, Jones was never really raw. But, at one point, he was mostly just creative.

Today, Jones is a coachable, maniacal center of poise who institutes and sticks to game plans -- game plans tailored to his overwhelming reach advantage, speed and the eventual surrender of his opponent’s optimism. These days you can visibly see guys lose spirit in a fight with Jones. You see theoretically sound ideas go right out the cage door.

His fight at UFC 145 was no different. Rashad Evans, the former light heavyweight champion, was supposed to close the gap between himself and Jones, and fight on the inside. This was Evans’ criticism of old foe Quinton Jackson, who couldn’t sneak inside Evans' striking range at UFC 135.

Once in, Evans was supposed to dump Jones on to his back like he did Phil Davis -- a lengthy wrestler -- and make it a grueling, grinding affair. Make it boring. It all seemed reasonable enough.

Yet, like Jackson, Evans couldn’t sustain close, and he settled into a stand-up fight with Jones, where he was forced to stay in the champion’s orbit. In other words, the danger belonged to him alone. When Evans did manage to get inside, Jones threw elbows from puncher’s range; when the wrists were locked at his waist, Jones threw shoulders.

As has become the custom, Jones did it his way. The big difference is that he’s traded in the unpredictable for telegraphy and “try and stop me.” Even scarier: The freelance improvisations that we saw against Stephan Bonnar and Jake O’Brien are still in Jones' arsenal, but they’re now situational. His cool dictates the fight.

The Jones of 2012 is a Zen-harnessed version of his already ridiculous self. Before, it was a showcase of a rare and gifted skill set you wondered whether would work on elite competition.

Now Jones is far and away the elite, and everybody else at 205 pounds is left studying the Mona Lisa. He knows it. The guys he fights -- and an increasing number of fans -- know he knows it and want to put a stop to it. They can’t. Even Evans, who had some trade secrets from his days training with Jones at Greg Jackson’s gym couldn’t stop it. Whatever vulnerabilities could be found in sparring sessions have nothing to do with the combined “it” factor that he saw on Saturday night. Jones slows the fight down. He fights without emotional projection, like it’s a casual undertaking to be gotten at with patience and skill and ungodly long limbs. He kills himself in training to make it look easy on fight night. He fights twice as much as Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre.

In MMA, it’s Jones' world right now.

And it’s why at this point a lot of people are sold on the fact that he has cleaned out the light heavyweight division. Dan Henderson lingers, but not many are convinced he’ll bring anything to the table that Jones hasn’t seen. Hendo has that right hand. He has the wrestling pedigree. He has willingness. All of it admirable.

But there will be questions, most common of which will be this: How do you defeat Jon Jones? Plenty of fighters have had their theories handed back to them by Jones with a wink and a "nice try."

So, Dan Henderson -- how do you, at 42, beat Jon Jones, the phenom who’s already fighting to his potential at 24 years old?

Facing an opponent he truly dislikes isn’t something new to top UFC light heavyweight contender Rashad Evans.

Two years ago, he took on -- and defeated -- Quinton Jackson. After his unanimous decision win at UFC 114, it was difficult to imagine Evans ever disliking an opponent more. But Saturday at UFC 145 in Atlanta, Evans will face a guy he seems to despise far more than Jackson -- 205-pound champion Jon Jones. And the feeling is mutual.

A year ago, Evans and Jones were friends and training partners. Today, however, they struggle to look one another in the eye without getting the urge to throw a punch. The disdain between them is powerful and has been on display the past few months leading to Saturday's showdown.

But with the fight only a few days away, Evans is done being angry with Jones. Sure, he'll articulate his dislike for Jones if asked, but he will do so without going off the handle.

It’s time to fight, and Evans refuses to let anything prevent him from being his best at UFC 145. So the former light heavyweight titleholder has put his emotions in check.

“When it comes to having a big fight and the buildup leading to it, emotions are involved,” Evans told ESPN.com. “You have to be able to divorce yourself from your feelings.

“What it comes down to is making it just another fight. Sometimes when guys have so much dislike for one another, it becomes hard to do.

“But at the same time, if you treat it professionally you will be able to do it.”

By taking his emotions out of the equation, Evans is fully prepared to execute his fight plan. And it’s no secret that a big part of that plan involves closing the gap between himself and the rangy Jones.

At 6-foot-4, Jones will tower over the 5-11 Evans. But a five-inch height disparity isn’t much of an issue for Evans; he’s had to look up to just about all of his Octagon foes.

What makes Jones more complicated than others is his 84.5-inch reach. It’s the longest in UFC history.

Evans knows that getting under Jones’ long limbs will be a key factor in leaving the cage victorious Saturday night. And he believes he possesses the technique to accomplish that goal.

“Boxing is my fundamental striking base,” said Evans, who will carry a 17-1-1 pro record and a four-fight win streak into the bout. “I’m a boxer in training. It’s definitely something I will look to implement in my strategy.

“It’s what I do; it’s what I’m comfortable with.”

But boxing won’t be the only technique Evans plans to utilize. Every weapon in his arsenal will be on display against Jones. He's also incorporated a few wrinkles into his offense and defense that might give Jones pause.

“

It goes without saying that I am going to do what I can to upset the opposition, something a little bit unexpected. If I do everything that is expected, I probably won't win. I've got to mix it up.

” -- Rashad Evans, on throwing a curveball at Jon Jones

“It goes without saying that I am going to do what I can to upset the opposition, something a little bit unexpected,” Evans said. “If I do everything that is expected, I probably won’t win. I’ve got to mix it up.”

This will be Jones’ first time competing in such an emotionally charged bout. Jackson tried unsuccessfully to throw him off; they didn’t have enough history.

But the timing of a fight with Evans couldn’t have come at a better time for the 24-year-old champion.

“From his first UFC fight until now, all of his opponents have been pretty good,” Jones’ manager, Malki Kawa, told ESPN.com. “He’s fought Stephan Bonnar, Brandon Vera and Vladimir Matyushenko.

“Then you’ve got Ryan Bader, a legend in [Mauricio] Shogun [Rua], another guy who’s probably going to make the Hall of Fame in Rampage, and he turns around and beats a guy most people haven’t been able to figure out in Lyoto Machida.

“They’ve all been good opponents, and Rashad is just the latest in a line of good opponents Jon has faced in the past year or so.

“That he is fighting Rashad now is good because he’s got the confidence and a good mental base that has come along with experience.”

Jones (15-1) will be making the third defense of his light heavyweight belt.

As he prepares to take on Alexander Gustafsson on Saturday at the UFC’s first-ever show in Sweden, Thiago Silva finds himself at an interesting time to return from a drug suspension.

Or -- in the interest of accuracy, I guess -- a drug-related suspension.

After all, Silva didn’t get handed a one year ban from competition for shooting an illicit substance into his spine prior to UFC 125 so much as what he did to try to cover it up. Instead of taking the rap for the injectable itself, Silva opted for what is probably the most hilarious way to fail a commission administered drug test: Submitting a sample that ultimately proved “inconsistent with human urine.”

If you know you’re going down, might as well go down in flames, right?

At the time, we all had a good laugh. Fast forward a little more than 12 months, however, and Silva is about to step back into an MMA landscape riddled with high-profile steroid scandals. After Quinton Jackson voluntarily confessed to hormone replacement therapy, Cristiane Santos got pinched for using an old school bodybuilding drug and Alistair Overeem submitted a urine sample consistent with a human who is totally jacked out of his mind on testosterone, fight fans could conceivably be in a fairly unforgiving mood these days.

There is no telling how this second tour of duty might go for Silva. With a record of 14-2 (now with one no contest), his only previous losses came against former 205-pound champions Rashad Evans and Lyoto Machida but he also hasn’t exactly defeated a “who’s who” of top talent during his UFC career.

Prior to his suspension, Silva had bounced around the outskirts of the light heavyweight top-10, but after spending a year forcibly removed from the action, his most notable Octagon wins over the likes of Keith Jardine, Houston Alexander and James Irvin suddenly don’t seem overly extraordinary anymore. Most recently, he’d also been slowed by the back injury he eventually blamed for his drug use.

Silva remains something of an interesting talent, but the lack of big wins, the injury trouble and the drug suspension all make it difficult to nail down what kind of future he might have.

Luckily for him, his employer appears ready to forgive past transgressions, accepting his time served and inserting him directly into a nationally televised main event bout against Gustafsson in his first fight back. Even if it is one where Silva enters as close to a 2-to-1 underdog against a hometown hero who some observers expect to mature into a future foe for champion Jon Jones, it’s probably a better assignment than Silva might’ve expected, or deserved.

Perhaps such surprising post-suspension treatment can be chalked up to good behavior. Fact is, Siva was actually refreshingly honest about his drug snafu, at least once it became clear that officials had him dead to rights.

“I used a urine adulterant when giving a sample following my fight with Brandon Vera,” Silva said last year via a prepared statement. “I did so in an attempt to alter the results of the test and knowingly broke the rules of the Nevada [State] Athletic Commission. This was a terrible decision on my part for which I will be punished. I am prepared to accept this punishment, learn from it and move on. I apologize to the commission, the UFC, Brandon Vera and the MMA fans.”

For an MMA drug test mea culpa, that’s about as good as it gets. In light of it, perhaps fans and promoters alike will be willing to give Silva a second chance.

Make that a last chance, as he prepares to reenter a culture that by now should be about one steroid scandal away from its breaking point.

Chael Sonnen has labeled Quinton "Rampage" Jackson a "crybaby" after the former UFC light heavyweight champion accused the UFC of giving him difficult fights. More »

Quinton Jackson and I weren't supposed to share a flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo, but circumstances demanded it.

He was headed to Japan for the first time; this trip was my fourth. Jackson was nothing if not curious, which is among the many things I learned about him during that journey in the summer of 2001. As we flew over the Pacific, Jackson wondered a million different things about Pride FC, Japan, its people and food, and though he couldn’t have imagined it at the time, the country would become his professional home for the next five years.

I saw "Rampage" fight for the first time 13 months earlier at King of the Cage 4. A slugfest against a debuting Marvin Eastman was tucked near the bottom of a lineup that included Duane Ludwig, Falaniko Vitale, Fabiano Iha and Daijiro Matsui. Wearing a heavy chain around his neck and a wrestling singlet on his body, Jackson didn’t appear to know how to do anything but be tough. He certainly didn’t know how to fight, not in a professional sense, and lost on points. Jackson, however, wasn’t easy to forget. Recognizing his potential, promoters Terry Trebilcock and Tedd Williams matched him with eight guys you've never heard of to build up his record.

The 11-month winning streak was convincing enough that Jackson, who by then had earned a reputation on the Southern California fight circuit as an exciting prospect, got a call to fight Japanese superstar Kazushi Sakuraba at Pride 15. He didn’t know what Pride was. Didn’t know who Sakuraba was. But he said "yes", and was booked to fly out on Wednesday of fight week. He didn’t make the flight, of course.

An anonymous tip alleging Jackson was an armed felon attempting to flee the country prompted airport police to arrest him at gunpoint on charges of probation violation. Eight hours in jail, bail having been paid, Jackson hopped on a flight the next day.

He could tell a story, had a good one to share, and an eager listener.

At the time Jackson blamed the arrest on his chief second, Chris Brennan, who wanted to fight Sakuraba himself, “Rampage” claimed. A couple of days later, with Brennan in his corner, Jackson nearly slammed his way to a shocking win.

This sort of melodrama has accompanied Jackson at every stage of his career. Over the last two weeks, for instance, “Rampage,” now a grizzled veteran and former champion, has talked a lot, sparked headlines, and created a story. He was done with the UFC, he said. He wanted out because he felt disrespected and underpaid. He also made waves when he told Fighters Only Magazine he utilized testosterone replacement therapy against Ryan Bader.

All that led to Tuesday’s news that, no, he wasn’t going to get his release from the UFC. Instead, he’d have to make good on the terms of his deal with Zuffa and fight Mauricio Rua again. Jackson frolicked around on Twitter, promising 10 more years of fighting thanks to his TRT prescription.

See, whether it’s played-up nonsense Pride tried to pitch Japanese media about Jackson being homeless and living in a bus, or true-to-life realities that make him among mixed martial arts' most unique and reported upon figures, Jackson is always happy to sell.

Acting as a second job came later in life, but it’s fair to say Jackson has long been a performer. Even when he’s at his most serious, there’s plenty of showmanship to be found when he fights. All he ever wanted to do is entertain. That’s how he passed time growing up in a rough patch of Memphis. And at the age of 33, that’s basically what he’s doing now, only with a bonus of large checks attached to his performances.

For certain periods, “Rampage” became one of the few mixed martial artists to hit it big. His famous knockout of Chuck Liddell in 2007 capped ESPN’s first real venture into covering the UFC and mixed martial arts. Liddell was the man everyone knew coming in. Jackson was the man everyone knew coming out. One fight later “Rampage” tussled with Dan Henderson for the right to unify the light heavyweight division, and claimed the No. 1 ranking.

This period was Jackson’s brightest moment as a professional. He enjoyed great wins in Japan, including picture-perfect efforts like the night he dismantled Kevin Randleman, yet Jackson’s 2007 represented the culmination of what so many people felt he was capable of.

“It” realized.

The issue with his flavor of entertainment: sports is a results-based business unfolding in a finite window. Selling, promoting and entertaining are extremely useful when they fall in line with winning. But “Rampage” hasn’t done so consistently since UFC gold adorned his waist. For Jackson to have a chance at spinning his greatest yarn, that must change starting with his attempt at retribution against Rua later this year.

Quinton Jackson has never been known for his emotional stability. People thought he’d cracked back in 2008 when he was arrested in a hit-and-run situation in Orange County, Calif.. That was after a loss to Forrest Griffin, who hobbled him with leg kicks for five back-and-forth rounds.

Jackson is off the rails again, this time after a loss to Ryan Bader. And now the storm clouds are collecting over Rampage's mood. For the past week, Jackson has been ripping into the UFC, Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva, the latter of whom he said, by the way, should be “shot in the face” for putting him against Bader.

In short, Jackson is making a compelling case to be released by the UFC. A very compelling case, indeed.

Why exactly is he making that case? It’s a lot of fussy complaints that just sort of drift along. He is disgruntled with fighter pay, fighting hurt, fighting through fighting hurt stoically and for not being marketed properly. Those are just the toppings. The real crux? The amount disrespect he’s feeling. That’s the unforgivable part for Jackson, the part that he says has drained from him the love of being a fighter. How could the UFC take a legend in this sport and pit him against a snoozing singlet? How could they be critical of him afterward, given the fact that he was hurt coming in and yet refused on principle to back out?

It’s all very filthy, and he’s purging himself of negative energy via social platforms like Twitter and Bas Rutten.

Rampage’s running refrain through all of this is he’s keeping it real. Just like he was keeping it real when he casually told Fighter’s Only magazine that he was taking testosterone to replenish fallen levels ahead of UFC 144. Doctor’s orders, you know. He was trying to fight through a knee injury that took away from his roadwork that ultimately led to him showing up six pounds over weight at UFC 144. These are factors, not excuses. If the UFC had only bothered to track his every move leading up to the fight -- a fight he signed on for under his own free will -- they’d know this.

But the UFC didn’t, and for as real as Jackson’s keeping it, Dana White’s about to make it as real as it gets. Jackson’s wish to be let go might be granted really soon. In fact, the UFC’s response will come this evening on "UFC Tonight", and if they’re staging it on national television, that might mean for once they are seeing eye-to-eye with him. Or give him his one last fight with Mauricio Rua, which would be generous.

Either way, it looks like Jackson's days are numbered -- which includes his slams, his motor boating antics, his tangents, his ornery streak and his baggage.

And going over the lead-up to this drastic conclusion, the tipping point might have been when Jackson essentially called Dana White a liar.

Earlier this week in New York, White told MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani that the Fighter’s Only story and the TRT quotes were fabrications. He said that Jackson, in essence, told him and Lorenzo Fertitta that those things were never said. Where did this stuff come from, then? White didn’t know -- somebody’s imagination, probably.

Yet a few days later, Rampage reiterated the quotes were accurate to Bas Rutten on Inside MMA. TRT? Yeah, he took it. Why not? He has nothing to hide, and he wanted to be open about it because he didn’t want to be classified as a cheater. The doctors told him to, and now he feels 25 years old again. A prescription is a prescription.

This, of course, makes White look like a liar. Either that, or it makes Rampage appear a little more out on that ledge than we know. Or some combination of both, a case of damage control gone berserk.

For as foolish as it is to chose up sides on the matter, it’s hard not to see the UFC’s. White and Jackson have butted heads a lot over the years. Yet here’s a guy they built a card around, UFC 107 in his native Memphis, only to have Jackson back out to film The A-Team. That one smarted. And remember, they wanted Jackson to fight on FOX, where the marketing machine would have been strongest, but instead granted his wish to fight in Japan. For as many complains as Jackson has, he’s got the gun pointed at his own foot for most.

By this point, the UFC is left with no real choice but to part ways with a disgruntled employee. Stings a little for fans who know the contributions that the former UFC light heavyweight champion has made to the sport over the years, and maybe things could have been fixed with better communication. But Jackson’s wish is to be cut loose is one that the UFC might want to heed.

And when it happens, here’s a hunch that at some point we’ll get to brush off the most shop-worn cliché in the book -- that of being careful what you wish for.

According to UFC president Dana White, Dan Henderson would fight any man in the world -- including Chael Sonnen -- as long as a UFC title was on the line. More »

UFC president Dana White plans to do little in response to Quinton Jackson's threat to quit the UFC, insisting the light heavyweight is merely an emotional character. More »

Credit Quinton Jackson for his honesty, I guess.

Whether he meant to or not, Jackson cast himself smack dab into the center of MMA’s biggest brewing controversy this week when he admitted as part of a wide-ranging interview with Fighters Only Magazine that he used testosterone leading up to his UFC 144 loss to Ryan Bader.

To anyone who’s been paying attention over the last year or so, this revelation is probably not overly shocking. Jackson, after all, merely joins a growing crop of 30-and-40-something fighters like Dan Henderson, Chael Sonnen and Nate Marquardt who've all gone on the record saying they have, or continue to undergo, testosterone replacement therapy.

Fact is, as long as any fighter has been granted a medical exemption by state regulators, gets a note from his doctor and keeps his hormone levels within legal limits come test time, it’s not against the rules.

But by talking so openly, at length and seemingly sincerely about the boosts he felt from using testosterone -- and by otherwise appearing to be a perfectly healthy 33-year-old male -- Jackson revived and perhaps even deepened questions about the use of TRT in MMA.

Since he also sucked his employer into the conversation by commenting that his doctor “works for the UFC” and alleging that the fight company was aware of his use leading up to last weekend’s show in Japan, it’s bound to raise some eyebrows about situations where the organization acts as its own regulatory body at overseas events.

“I went to see the doctor and he told me to talk to an age-management doctor,” said Jackson, explaining that he sought medical help after injuring his knee before the Bader fight. “So I went and talked to them and they tested me and said my testosterone was low; they prescribed me testosterone, to bring my testosterone levels back up ... so that I am the same as young people, like when I was 25, and it would help build my knee up. I hurt my knee like a month ago and I only did three shots of testosterone but it put a lot of weight on me, a lot of muscle on me but it healed my knee up good enough to where I could fight.”

Again, it's perfectly legal for Jackson to do this and there is no problem with the UFC knowing about it. When done correctly, when the proper paperwork is filled out, TRT remains technically legal. On the other hand, many observers scoff at the notion that fighters could have legitimate medical reasons for seeking such treatment and continue to see it as a sort of approved cheating; a loophole being exploited by opportunistic guys looking for a leg up on the competition.

Most of Jackson’s comments will only bolster that opinion, as the symptoms he described don’t sound at all out of the ordinary for an aging athlete. Jackson says he gets hurt more now than he used to, that he has a tougher time healing from injuries and can’t train like he could a few years ago.

He seems to think of that as a medical problem. The rest of us would probably just call it getting older.

Therein lie the trickiest questions regarding TRT.

Should a 33-year-old man like Jackson really have the testosterone levels of a 25-year-old?

Should he be able to compete at the same level he could as a younger man?

Should he (or any fighter verging on middle age) be able to go to a doctor and essentially say, “Make me young again”?

After all, if Jackson’s only real symptom is that he’s not as good as he was eight years ago, that probably shouldn't warrant medical intervention.

So far, however, state regulatory bodies (and, according to Jackson, the UFC, when it is regulating itself) say that it does, as long as a fighter can find a doctor to sign off on it. Clearly, though, this issue will be debated at length moving forward and where the rules and regulations ultimately come down remains to be seen.

Right now, one of the only things we know for sure about testosterone replacement therapy is that Quinton Jackson seems to like it.

He seems to like it a lot.

“This was my first time ever using testosterone,” Jackson said. “I took what the doctor prescribed to me and I went to the pharmacy ... I gave myself small doses and that s--- immediately changed me, that’s why I am saying now I am not going to retire. I am not gonna retire no time soon ...

“I feel young again. I’m happy I did the testosterone; I wish I had known about it sooner.”

Mauricio Shogun Rua does not believe Quinton Jackson should be criticised for his performance at UFC 144, but he is willing to step forward as Jackson's next opponent. More »

Ryan Bader insists he would be short-sighted to come out with the sole intention of taking Quinton Jackson to the mat at UFC 144, because the plan will not work. More »

Quinton Jackson is so focused on putting on the fight of the night at UFC 144 that he admits he does not care if he loses to Ryan Bader -- though he does plan on putting a serious hurt on his foe. More »

Quinton Jackson has revealed he would rather not talk to co-commentator and interviewer Joe Rogan after his UFC 144 fight with Ryan Bader, because he knows Rogan will have attacked him moments earlier on commentary. More »

Michael Bisping believes Ryan Bader will be picking on the wrong guy at the wrong time when he fights Quinton Jackson at UFC 144. More »

If there was one spectator of the UFC on FOX 2 show in Chicago on Jan. 28 with a heavily vested interest, it was Dan Henderson, the circumstantial No. 1 contender in the light heavyweight division, and a circumstantial top challenger in the middleweight division. Henderson is a renaissance contender. The problem is, he’s a renaissance contender with the most stubborn obstacles.

We saw how things turned out. Rashad Evans beat Phil Davis to finally punch his ticket to Jon Jones, and Chael Sonnen escaped Michael Bisping to set up what might become the biggest event in MMA history with Anderson Silva. For as perfect as those match-ups look for finality to long-fostered acrimony, this left 41-year-old Dan Henderson in the lurch.

At least as far symbolic belts are concerned.

Contrary to popular belief, though, Henderson isn’t necessarily interested in waiting to see how Jones-Evans plays out to firm up his shot. He says if there’s an opponent that makes sense, he’d like to fight sooner rather than later. Waiting isn’t his style.

“That was never what I said or anything,” Henderson told ESPN.com. “I don’t know who said that, but it wasn’t me. My thoughts were I was waiting to see what happened with Rashad [Evans] and Phil Davis. That was the only thing I was going to wait for.”

The person who said that was Dana White himself, who told media that Henderson was in a position where it “looks like he’ll wait for Jon Jones.” That would be fine and good for Henderson, if the UFC could promise a quick turnaround after the Jones-Evans fight in Atlanta on April 21. Problem is, guarantees like that aren’t realistic given the hazards of the fight game.

“Obviously you can’t guarantee that nobody gets hurt,” Henderson says. “I don’t know what the plan is, but I’d fight whoever it is they think would be a good match-up. The problem is there’s really nobody right now who fits the bill for a title contention fight, that would make sense to fight me. I don’t know. Maybe I’d fight at a different weight class. I don’t know if they see anybody at heavyweight that would make sense? But I would prefer to fight someone in April or May.”

“

That was never what I said or anything. I don't know who said that, but it wasn't me. My thoughts were I was waiting to see what happened with Rashad [Evans] and Phil Davis. That was the only thing I was going to wait for."

” -- Dan Henderson

Henderson turned down a title eliminator with Antonio Rogerio Nogueira that would have been the headlining bout for the now-scrapped Montreal card. He did that because he was waiting to see what would happen with Evans-Davis. Now with Evans having won and Nogueira booked to fight Alexander Gustafsson in Sweden on April 14, Henderson is left without a dance partner.

And that opens up a range of possibilities. One of them is fighting at heavyweight. Though he had to drink a gallon of water to make weight in his final Strikeforce bout with Fedor Emelianenko in July, fighting bigger guys has never spooked Henderson. In fact, it can’t help but intrigue him.

“For sure it does,” he says. “Who do the fans want me to fight at heavyweight? I’d have to think about that. I don’t know who at heavyweight would even make sense. The heavyweights that are in title contention right now wouldn’t want to fight me. I don’t know who is out there, but I did let the UFC know I’d be open to that as well.”

There is one fight that could be on the horizon that Henderson would strongly consider, and yet again it’s circumstantial. If Quinton Jackson were to beat Ryan Bader at UFC 144 on Feb. 26, he says that a rematch of their 2007 UFC title tilt would be fun.

“I would entertain that fight, sure; it’s a big fight,” he says. “I mean, that’s only one win he’d be coming off of. But again, it depends on the circumstances and I don’t know what they’re talking about in terms of the turnaround after Jones/Evans. Still, the Quinton Jackson/Bader fight is two months before Jones/Evans.”

Whatever the route, as long as it leads to a title shot -- preferably in his natural 205-pound weight class -- Hendo is all for it. If you’ve followed Hendo throughout his career, you know that he loves the idea of conquering indestructible forces. He’s made a career of it. And it’s no different if he gets his wish and finds himself standing across from Jon Jones in 2012.

“I think he’s definitely shown some inexperience,” he says of Jones. “He makes up for it with a lot of athleticism and just unorthodox striking. He definitely -- like anybody -- has holes in his game, and I just think that my style would match up real well with him.”

But first things first: Hendo will have to navigate through the set of circumstances that are right now preventing it.