By Tony Reid

FloCombat: You'll face Hector Lombard at UFC 199 on June 4. What are your thoughts on the matchup with this heavy-handed judoka monster?

Dan Henderson: He’s very dangerous, especially in the first round. He comes at you full-force, and you have to be ready for that. I’m looking forward to an exciting fight.

With all you've accomplished (the multi-division PRIDE championships, UFC tournament championship, Strikeforce championship), what drives you to accomplish more in the sport where you're already as established and legendary as anyone in history?

The love of the sport. I love my job. Every time we get an opponent, it’s a new challenge, and I get excited to test myself against each and every one of those challenges.

At 45 years old, you are older and wiser than you were in the early days of the sport. How have your training, mindset and general practices changed over the years to keep you active and competing at such a high level?

I've cut back on certain things and added other things. I've made my training camps a little longer. I ease into it a little slower and I’m still able to go hard for the same amount of time as I have in previous training camps. I have just become smarter in training. I don’t beat myself up as bad as I used to, but I still get my cardio up and my hard sparring in.

In the days leading up to April 16 and the UFC on FOX 19, your potential opponent Lyoto Machida admitted to using a banned substance and the fight was scrapped two days prior to the event. You clearly were not happy about it. How did you get word of the cancellation?

I think I was in shock. For a professional athlete to be that irresponsible, it shows he doesn’t have much respect for the fans, the sport or for me, his opponent. It was frustrating to go through training camp and then two days before the fight he gets pulled because he took the wrong supplement. I have been competing in wrestling and MMA for such a long time. When I wrestled we were subject to the same type of drug testing, with no advanced notice, for years. I think it’s much easier today with all of the technology to know if the supplements you are using are clean and legitimate. I just think there is any excuse at all.

If your career does end in the near future, will the Jon Jones fight be the one that got away?

I don’t see it happening now. At the time I was scheduled to fight him I was probably as ready for that fight as any fight I had ever been in. I was in the best shape of my life for that fight. I brought a lot of guys in that were long and tall and I was looking forward to that fight. Who knows what would have happened? Maybe I would have got my ass kicked but I would like to have known that and tested myself against him. It’s the fight I wish I would have had.

It seems as though that was the dirty little secret in the sport for some time.

Yeah, originally I got a little bit of crap for talking a little smack on him. It wasn’t really smack. It's just that he’s hypocritical. He acts one way and portrays himself in a different way to fans. He’s just not genuine. I saw a lot of it early on. I just wish people would just be who they are. I would have a lot more respect for them. Jon Jones is guy who I have not been able to get behind as a fan or supporter. It’s because of how he acts, not how he fights. He is an awesome fighter and very talented. I wish he would get the rest of his life together, too.

There's been so much talk about potential retirement. Is there a check list? When will you know it’s time to hang 'em up and walk away?

This is the last fight on my current contract. I would like to finish this one strong and then we will see. If they (the UFC) wants me around I will fight or just represent the UFC. Ideally, that’s what I would want. I can’t go without a paycheck yet. I still need a job and I want to be involved in the sport so it might as well be with the UFC.