FanHouse Ufc

HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. -- Dan Henderson is in town to corner Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in his fight against Gegard Mousasi on Saturday night, but the free agent told FanHouse on Friday that he will also talk to Strikeforce officials about possibly fighting for their organization in the near future.

Henderson refuted a recent Yahoo! Sports report which stated he had already signed with Strikeforce and also said that he has not closed the door on re-signing with the UFC. Check out the video interview below.

Jesse Taylor, the former Ultimate Fighter cast member who was kicked off the show for misbehavior and dropped by the UFC after a loss in the Octagon, suffered another setback in losing to Luke Rockhold on a Strikeforce Challengers Series card in Fresno Friday night.

Taylor, a former wrestler, immediately shot for a takedown and kept working for it until he finally got Rockhold on his back a little over a minute into the first round. But going to the ground turned out to be a mistake: Rockhold showed superior Brazilian jiu jitsu skills, getting Taylor's back, controlling him with a body triangle, and making him tap with a rear-naked choke.

UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre says the abductor muscle he tore at UFC 100 is completely healed, and he's expecting to fight again in March or April.

The UFC currently has four of its five champions sitting out with either injuries or illness, leading some to wonder whether the promotion has been cursed this fall. But Stephan Bonnar said this week on ESPN's MMA Live that it's not a curse, but a change of attitude within the UFC: According to Bonnar, the UFC brass has started showing more sympathy when its top fighters say they can't go.

The plan to reschedule the UFC heavyweight championship bout between champ Brock Lesnar and challenger Shane Carwin at UFC 108 on Jan. 2 has been nixed.

Carwin (11-0) was informed Wednesday evening by the UFC through his manager that the illness that caused Lesnar (4-1) to withdraw last week from their UFC 106 main event on Nov. 21 has persisted, rendering the champ unfit to train for a Jan. 2 fight as well.

On this week's edition of The MMA Hour, we were first joined by UFC middleweight star Michael Bisping. "The Count" who is gearing up for his fight against Denis Kang at UFC 105 on Nov. 14, talked about putting his recent knockout loss to Dan Henderson behind him and why so many fighters and fans love to hate him.

Later in the show, we talked to play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson, who will be calling Saturday night's Strikeforce card on CBS. Johnson discussed MMA's rise in popularity and whether Fedor Emelianenko can become a star in the United States. MDS and I also previewed some of the storylines heading into Saturday's event. Listen to the show below.

Not many players from the 1996 NFL draft are still in the league, but one of that year's picks, Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Marcus Jones, is still a professional athlete: Jones is trying his hand in MMA, and his first fight on The Ultimate Fighter will air Wednesday night on Spike.

The latest MMA fighter to use YouTube to promote himself is Mike Swick, who's doing a series of video blogs to promote his UFC 105 fight with Dan Hardy. The first one is above.

Heading into a busy next few weeks with Strikeforce's CBS debut this Saturday, and back-to-back UFC Saturdays beginning the following weekend, SI.com's Ben Fowlkes and I discuss the hot topics coming from those events.

We break down CBS' promotion of the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers card, the probable best fight of the month, UFC 106 and whether Fedor will ever be a major star in America.

Check it out below.