When 4 isn't enough..

Dana White confirmed on his personal Twitter account that UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones will face number 1 contender Dan Henderson on Saturday, September 1st in Las Vegas, Nevada!

@danawhite: John Jones vs Dan Henderson for Jones UFC LHW title on Sept 1st in Las Vegas!!!!

It will be the main event of what is expected to be UFC 151. The venue has yet to be announced, but giving the UFC’s usual choices it’s probably safe to assume it will be held at either the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay.

Henderson earned the shot with a unanimous decision classic over Rua last November at UFC 139 which some call the greatest MMA fight of all time. Before that, he was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion, taking the title from Rafael Cavalcante last March and then notably finished Fedor Emelianenko last July in Strikeforce.

Dan Henderson’s 15 years in the 18-year-old sport of mixed martial arts render “Hendo” one of the 10 greatest mixed fighters of all-time.

As he next prepares to challenge UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones – the youngest titleholder in octagon history – the question arises: Is Jones facing the greatest of all-time?

At 41 years old (perhaps 42 depending on when the title bout is officially set), Henderson enters his UFC clash for the gold against a fighter indicative of MMA’s new sporting future – one who is an entire senior-prom-going teenager younger than the veteran. It’s a classic title fight storyline: the decorated former champion challenging the ascendant crown-wearing dominator of the division. Weighing Henderson’s accomplishments makes it all the more compelling.

Henderson’s current resume boasts 10 wins over big-show champions: Carlos Newton, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Murilo Bustamante, Kazuo Misaki, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Rich Franklin, Rafael Cavalcante, Fedor Emelianenko and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. That is victory against at least six future Hall of Famers plus the legendary Renzo Gracie, a yesteryear fighter before title accolades were in serious vogue. Comparatively, Anderson Silva, who’s generally the current consensus greatest fighter ever, has six champions on his ledger. Georges St-Pierre has three.

With only eight losses in 15 years. Of the eight opponents to walk away victorious against Henderson, only Ricardo Arona (split decision) and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (armbar) have not held notable titles. Half (Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Quinton Jackson and Anderson Silva) are surefire Hall of Famers. Henderson also holds victories over three (Misaki, Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira) of the opponents who defeated him. However, none of the four fighters to best Anderson Silva wore a significant championship belt in his career.

Where Henderson surpasses Silva is in his divisional jumping. Like Henderson, Silva has been successful in three weight classes albeit with much less frequency. Defeating Shooto welterweight kingpin Hayato Sakurai in 2001 and former UFC light-heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin in 2008 account for his out-of-division success. Henderson, meanwhile, enjoyed the greatest victories of his career – Wanderlei Silva, “Shogun” and Emlianenko – above his natural weight of 185 pounds. A preference to fight larger combatants at light heavyweight was comically apparent in Henderson’s Strikeforce title grab versus Rafael Cavalcante, a man so thickly muscled no scale should ever register him as a 205-pounder. No matter size differentials, Henderson’s heavy-handed “H-Bomb” spun around “Feijao” and sent him to the mat face down.

Then there are the accolades all Henderson’s own. Fighters to seize the major titles in two weight classes can be counted on one hand. Henderson is the first and only fighter to simultaneously hold two major belts, the PRIDE middleweight (205 pounds) and welterweight (183 pounds) titles. In addition to multiple titles, he is one of few to ever win two high-profile tournaments: UFC 17′s middleweight-bracket victory and the following year, Rings’ Kings of Kings 1999 open-weight tournament.

Crumbling the most storied heavyweight in the sport, Emelianenko, in less than five minutes further elevates Henderson’s status to serious all-time greatest consideration. Not to mention arguably the second greatest heavyweight of all-time in Nogueira is also in his win column. The significance in jumping up two weight classes to best the two greatest heavyweights of the generation is a feat that cannot be understated. Recall the infamous scene in Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull” in which the master director illustrates Jake Lamotta’s pugilistic delusions by suggesting he would like to challenge heavyweight champ Joe Louis. Henderson essentially did that, and did so with his trademark toothless smile.

The case against Henderson is a 1-3 record in his most recent title bouts. Earning back-to-back UFC title shots on the strength of his historic PRIDE feat, he fell to light-heavyweight champ “Rampage” via hard-fought unanimous decision in September 2007. He then tapped out to middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva six months later. Working his way back to a No. 1 contender’s bid at 185 pounds to challenge Silva once more, contract negotiations found Henderson leaving the octagon for Strikeforce, where his organizational debut was upset by middleweight champion Jake Shields. Capturing Strikeforce’s 205-pound belt from Cavalcante exercised some of these demons from Henderson’s past and put him on the path that scored perhaps the two greatest victories – the ones that lead him to Jones – of his Hall of Fame career versus Emelianenko and Rua, back to back.

Henderson is nearly a four-to-one underdog on the betting lines versus “Bones” Jones. If Jones’ divisional dominance sustains, he can make the case he did so against the greatest fighter of all-time.

If Henderson stops Jones’ ferocious title run comprised of former titleholders, there may be little controversy in calling him the greatest ever.

Originally set to face Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva on the card in May, Nelson lost that opponent when main event fighter Alistair Overeem was pulled from the show and reshuffling had to take place.

In his place, Gabriel Gonzaga stepped in to face Nelson. Well now Gonzaga is also out due to injury so in steps former Sengoku fighter Dave Herman who faces Nelson at UFC 146.

UFC officials announced the switch on Tuesday night.

Team Quest’s Dave Herman steps into the bout on just over 3 weeks notice and looks to get back on track after suffering a loss to Stefan Struve in his last bout in the Octagon.

Herman won in his initial fight in the UFC defeating Jon Olav Einemo.

Now Herman steps in to face former Ultimate Fighter Roy Nelson in a bout that could have ‘Fight of the Night’ or ‘Knockout of the Night’ written all over it!

Henderson can absorb and deliver powerful strikes, making him a formidable opponent for anyone.

“Dan Henderson is an awesome opponent,” Jones says. “It’s just going to be a lot of things to conquer in this fight. He has extreme knockout power.”

Henderson knows something about applying Greco-Roman work to mixed martial arts. The two-time Olympian, with Matt Lindland and Randy Couture, was a member of the original Team Quest trio that introduced the standing clinch tactics that have become as fundamental to mixed martial arts’ vocabulary as Brazilian jiu-jitsu’s techniques on the ground.

Henderson’s trademark in the past five years has been a powerful punch from the right side that has put away a litany of notable opponents across several weight classes, including three major ex-champions in Wanderlei Silva, Rafael Cavalcante and Fedor Emelianenko, as well as contender Michael Bisping.

Yet the clinch remains Henderson’s foundation. He sees it as a key to success against Jones.

“You’ve really got to get inside and fight with him and end up in the clinch with him a lot,” Henderson says. “Jones is better than most guys in the clinch. … (But) that’s where I’m most comfortable. At the same time I need to be real careful with catching one of those goofy elbows that he throws.”

“He looked pretty solid,” Henderson says. “He threw a lot of stuff that’s, I guess, typical of him. Unorthodox with some nasty elbows. A lot of kicks.”

Henderson, like former stablemates Lindland and Couture, embodies the blue-collar side of MMA.

Trying to beat Jones without close-range tactics is a fruitless exercise, Henderson thinks.

“Rashad’s game should have been a little bit more mix it up from the outside and threaten more with takedowns and put Jones on his back,” Henderson says. “Rashad fought Jon Jones’ fight, not his own. … I definitely saw (openings) that Rashad should have capitalized on.”

Henderson, 41, wants to fight Jones in UFC’s July 7 show in Las Vegas, though the challenger views the date as a long-shot hope at best since it’s less than three months from now. Whenever it happens, Henderson sees an opportunity to cap off an MMA career few can match for breadth of accomplishment.

He has won one-night tournaments involving heavyweights and likely Hall of Famers in UFC and RINGS. He captured titles in PRIDE Fighting Championships and Strikeforce. He remains the only man to hold major titles in two weight classes at the same time.

Here is his play-by-play from the Gatineau, Quebec event:

Round 1: Almeida moves in for a jab and slips and seems to tweak his left knee, but mans up and shoots in for a single that Alvey easily defends. Alvey muscles him down and Almeida slides out of the ring wincing in pain and the fight is called off.
Alvey defeats Almeida via TKO (injury) @ 1:41 of Rd1