Dan Henderson ‘happy’ despite rumors of withdrawal from UFC 151 due to knee injury

Mixed Martial Arts fighter Dan “Hendo” Henderson is reportedly continuing to train for UFC 151 in September despite rumors that he will drop out of the fight because of a knee injury.

Henderson is scheduled to fight against the up-and-coming Jon Jones in the pay-per-view main event at The Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Sept. 1. The fight is for the “Bones” 205-pound title.

According to a report Thursday morning from MMA blog CageFighter.com, the rumor is that Henderson injured his knee in a grappling exercise with MMA fighter Thierry Sokoudjou on Wednesday:

Henderson returned from the doctors office with a leg brace securing the injury. [H]enderson also reportedly has not been approved for his TRT exemption as of now.

Bleacher Report’s national UFC writer Jeremy Botter alluded in a tweet early Thursday morning that the rumor could be true and that Henderson might withdraw from the fight.

If what I'm hearing is correct, UFC 151 may be in desperate need of a main event. And that sucks.—
Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) August 23, 2012

UFC announcer Kenny Florian also hinted on Twitter on Wednesday that Henderson may be out.

Hearing that we may have some disappointed @UFC fans soon due to some unfortunate circumstances for an upcoming card. 😔—
Kenny Florian (@kennyflorian) August 23, 2012

UFC fighter Tarec Saffiedine tweeted on Thursday that he hadn’t seen Henderson since his own fight for Strikeforce earlier in August.

But, despite all of the rumors and speculation on Twitter, “Dangerous Dan” is still training.

He took to Twitter just after midnight on Thursday, shortly after Saffiedine said he hadn’t seen him, to say he just finished a training session with a number of UFC fighters, including Saffiedine. Henderson also said in the early hours of Thursday morning that he is “getting worked on” by Mariah Villalobos, an extreme sports massage therapist, and is finishing the day “happy.”

Just got done with a great training session with the boys. @CyrilleDiabate @tarecfighter @heathlsims @RFBJJ @rockholdMMA—
Dan Henderson (@danhendo) August 23, 2012

Headed to the house to get worked on by @msmariahv to finish of the day happy.—
Dan Henderson (@danhendo) August 23, 2012

UFC president Dana White has been mum on the rumor, so the fight will continue as scheduled for Sept. 1.