Dan Henderson left the UFC last December to sign with fast-growing rival promotion Strikeforce, after a prolonged dispute with the UFC over his contract renewal.

Henderson's move to Strikeforce dismayed many of his fans when it was first announced, since as recently as a few months ago, it had seemed likely that he would have an opportunity to face UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in a rematch of their UFC 82 title fight.

Still, few fighters can say that they have left an organization with as emphatic a statement of success as Henderson's knockout of Michael Bisping at UFC 100.

Henderson recently appeared on The Shoot to discuss his decision to sign with Strikeforce and confirm his upcoming match up with Jake Shields in April.  

Henderson, who was a tremendously popular fighter with the UFC, having unsuccessfully contested both the UFC light-heavyweight and middleweight belts in 2007 and 2008 respectively, first addressed his move to Strikeforce.

"The bottom line is, and what it comes down to, I obviously wasn't completely happy over at the UFC," said Henderson. "I'm 100% happy with what I have here at Strikeforce. They have in this last year, the last six months especially, have committed to the fact that they want to compete as one of the top organizations out there and started signing fighters like Fedor and Gegard Mousasi, both of whom the UFC sought after as well. Them being there, that had a little bit to do with it. Those match-ups excite me, the possible match-ups with those guys and Jake Shields excite me. I don't do it just for the money."

Although thoughts of Henderson facing young light-heavyweight star Gegard Mousasi, not to mention his reference to a potential fight with the man who has dominated the MMA heavyweight world for the past ten years, Fedor Emelianenko, should be enough to get the pulses of MMA fans racing, Henderson also confirmed, as broken first on FiveKnuckles.com, that he will face Strikeforce middleweight champion Jake Shields in the promotions upcoming April event.

"That's going to be my first fight on Strikeforce, against Jake Shields," Henderson said with a smile. "Yes."

Jake Shields seized the vacant Strikeforce middleweight title with a victory over Jason "Mayhem" Miller last November via unanimous decision. Shields, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, is well known for his dangerous submission skills, but is somewhat small for middleweight having fought much of his career at welterweight.

Currently, Shields owns a 13-fight win streak, including a recent submission victory over new UFC welterweight sensation Paul Daley. Henderson appears well aware of Shields impressive resume.

"Obviously he's not someone to overlook at all," Henderson said. "Usually he's in pretty good condition, very dangerous on the ground. He's surprised a lot of guys, and he's one of the best at putting people on their back. You can lose a fight if you're on your back too much or if you get submitted. I need to be real careful. I've been around a long time, a lot of experience, but you still have to be real careful with guys like Jake. As long as I can kind of come up with a good game-plan and stick to it, I think that's a good match-up for me with my wrestling background being a little bit better than Jake's, and my striking being a little better than his. The only difference is, it's hard to really be too aggressive with a guy who's...