Chael Sonnen 'happy to play clean up' after Dan Henderson 'gets done' with Jon Jones

Chael Sonnen's short term goals include defeating Forrest Griffin and cleaning up after Dan Henderson.

In case you missed last night's blockbuster announcement, the former middleweight number one contender is moving up to light heavyweight to fight his TRT twin at the UFC 155 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Dec. 29, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

And after that?

According to his crystal ball, "Hendo" will dispose of "Bones" at UFC 151 on Sept. 1. Since Sonnen and Henderson are friends and training partners from way back when, that's probably not the kind of match-up either wrestler would be interested in.

That's fine with Sonnen.

He prefers to clean up the 205-pound mess "Dangerous Dan" leaves behind in "Sin City," according to his recent remarks in the NY Post.

Those comments, after the jump.

"A change is always nice. You do the same thing over and over, you’re always looking for change. 185 is the toughest weight class out there. We sent our champion (Silva) up to face their [former] champion, Forrest Griffin (in 2009). It lasted 93 seconds. There’s no debate to what the toughest weight class is. They used to have a karate guy (Lyoto Machida) that was champion at that weight. I don’t think there’s gonna be much left of [Jones] when Dan Henderson gets done with him. If there’s anything left of him, I’d be happy to play cleanup."

Sonnen (27-12) is widely-considered the second best middleweight in the world, despite coming up empty against Anderson Silva in title challenges at UFC 117 and UFC 148. Outside of "Spider" fights, the former Realtor is 5-0 since 2009, with wins over Michael Bisping, Brian Stann and Yushin Okami.

But is he biting off more than he can chew?

A win over Griffin would certainly raise his stock in the light heavyweight division, where a potential scrap opposite Rashad Evans also awaits. But is a Jones fight just a dream?

Time will tell.