Henderson meets with Strikeforce executives

LOS ANGELES -- Dana White had to laugh about his Wednesday night.

The UFC president went out to dinner in Beverly Hills only to find Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker dining with Dan Henderson's agent/lawyer, Jordan Feagan.

"What are the (expletive) odds with every restaurant in L.A. that I go to, these guys are here?" said White Thursday afternoon.

Strikeforce and broadcast partner CBS were just the latest in a long line of promotions he was doing battle with, he added.

With Henderson, a stalemate remains over negotiations to keep the former two-division Pride champion in the UFC.

In early August, Henderson became a free agent one month after fulfilling the final fight on his contract with a knockout over Michael Bisping at UFC 100. In late September, he met with White and UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta to bridge a gap in what Henderson expected to be paid and what the UFC was willing to pay him.

That meeting produced no results. Last week, White told Yahoo! Sports that negotiations were over -- for now -- and Henderson was free to move on.

At a gathering of reporters following the UFC 104 press conference, White said Henderson was asking for too much money.

"The money that he's asking for would make him by far the highest-paid guy in the UFC," said White.

Henderson returned to the Octagon in September 2007 after a nine-year absence and went 3-2 for the promotion in his latest run.

Aaron Crecy, Henderson's friend and business partner, on Thursday afternoon disputed the idea that Henderson was pricing himself out of the market.

"Based on conversations we've had with other fighters and managers, we don't believe that to be the case," he said.

Crecy stated it was the second meeting between Fagan and Strikeforce, the first being an informal coffee meeting two weeks prior.

White bristled at the idea of Henderson jumping ship to Strikeforce.

"I guarantee the offer I made him, Strikeforce can't pay," he said.

However, White stopped short of making any overt attacks against the 39-year-old veteran. As shown on White's on-again-off-again video blog, the two share a relationship filled with adolescent jibes.

Where White might have issued condemnation to another fighter, he teased Henderson.

"You'll never hear me say a bad thing about Dan Henderson, other than he's ugly, and that's just the truth," he said.