The UFC's Apparel Bans Affected Negotiations with Henderson?

Sherdog reached out to Dan Henderson to explain his decision to sign with Strikeforce. The entire interview is extremely interesting as it adds another layer of "he said, she said" to the Henderson-UFC negotiating saga. But there was one exchange regarding clothing that was particularly interesting.

Sherdog.com: How did the UFC's banning of your clothing brand, Clinch Gear, from their events affect renegotiations?
Henderson: Well, at least I'll be able to have Clinch Gear on in the cage when I fight for Strikeforce. The banning didn't really affect anything though. When the UFC called and said that we could no longer sponsor (other fighters), that we were banned from the UFC, I wasn't mad at all. It was more funny to me than anything that they would do that. Dana has stated to me that it was nothing personal and that there were no hard feelings at all. If there were no hard feelings, why would they ban a clothing line? We already had a deal; we were paying for the right to sponsor guys just like every other sponsor was. For them to come back and say just because Dan hasn't re-signed a deal yet, we're banned.

Sherdog.com: Does that play into your comment earlier that they need to respect fighters more?
Henderson: Absolutely. Things like that aren't necessary and for them to do that in the middle of negotiations doesn't make me feel respected. It's more of a strong-arm tactic and a lot of people turn the other way when that happens. To me, it was just funny. I didn't take it personally, but it just seemed a little contradictory to the ‘no hard feelings' thing.

Interesting to see how Zuffa leveraged their control over sponsorship entrance to ban Henderson's apparel line and how that subsequently affected the negotiations.That reeks of collusion to WKR.

Now if only Zuffa could use their power to keep out neo-nazi apparel...