UFC 151 Cancelled; Jones Declines Sonnen

[Pugz]

Fortunately for the UFC and its fans, it never had to cancel an event before it scrapped UFC 151 on Thursday.

But on a zany day in which the UFC announced that A) Dan Henderson was injured and couldn't fight Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title; B) Chael Sonnen had agreed to fight Jones on eight days' notice; C) Jones declined to fight anyone other than Henderson on Sept. 1; D) Jones would defend his belt on Sept. 22 at UFC 152 against Lyoto Machida; E) Machida declined the Sept. 22 match and F) Vitor Belfort ultimately would wind up fighting Jones in Toronto, everything bad that could have happened did, in fact, happen.

The events began to unfold late last week, when Henderson, a former PRIDE and Strikeforce champion, suffered a partial tear of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Henderson tried for a few days to see if he could go, but the knee lacked stability.

On Wednesday, he informed UFC president Dana White that he had to withdraw. White made several phone calls trying to replace Henderson, but, understandably, not too many were all that eager to take on Jones on such short notice. Only Sonnen had agreed to take the fight in what seemed to be setting up as a show-saving decision.

But Jones had other ideas.

"When Chael stepped up, I thought we were good," UFC chairman Lorenzo Fertitta said. "I honestly never thought of the possibility that Jon wouldn't fight."

Fertitta referred to what he called "a brotherhood in the fighter ranks" to do what they could to save the show.

Jones, though, looked at the differences in style between Sonnen and Henderson and decided it wasn't worth it to him to accept with only three days of practice available.

From a competitive standpoint, it was hard to argue with his decision. It wasn't easy to win the title, and in the last year-plus, he'd beaten Ryan Bader, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Machida and Rashad Evans, fighting five times when the UFC was lacking stars because of an assortment of injuries and illnesses.

The injury bug has hammered the UFC throughout 2012 and has forced White, Fertitta and matchmaker Joe Silva to scramble to rearrange cards. They'd moved fights off UFC 151 to other shows and were left with a card that seriously lacked in star power behind Jones-Henderson.

None of the other fighters on the card had the juice to carry the show. Fertitta said he agonized before yanking the show.

"We felt [we] needed to have a big headliner," Fertitta said. "We were in Las Vegas on the biggest stage and we just felt like we needed to have a big championship fight. That's just the way we do things. When Dan fell out, we were scrambling to find an opponent. … It's an individual sport, not a team sport, and a guy at the top like Jon Jones is hard to replace."

Read More:http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mma--without-jon-jones-and-dan-henderson--the-show-couldn-t-go-on-at-ufc-151.html;_ylt=AgRMcm.z9XsKJVINmmbVbH49Eo14;_ylu=X3oDMTN1c2tzNmxvBG1pdANGRUFUVVJFRCBNZWdhdHJvbiBVRkMEcGtnAzNmNWMxOTJmLWJjOTktMzdkNy1hOGFhLTNlMzZmMmRhZDhkZARwb3MDMQRzZWMDbWVnYXRyb24EdmVyAzMxZGY1YzQzLWVlNTgtMTFlMS04OGZlLTg3M2NhYjc0MmRhNg--;_ylg=X3oDMTFoMzFtaTRzBGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDBHBzdGNhdANtbWEEcHQDc2VjdGlvbnM-;_ylv=3

Michael Bisping, who lost a disputed decision to Sonnen in January in a fight he took on eight days' notice, was, as usual, among the most vocal.

"I've taken short-notice fights for the UFC a bunch of times, three or four times," he said. "I was told before weighing in for one fight that I was fighting again in six weeks. That wasn't a nice telephone call to make to my girlfriend, who'd just booked a holiday with the kids, I can assure you. But the UFC has provided me with a great lifestyle and I'm here for them.

"Jon Jones likes to talk about where he comes from, but the reason he now has a Bentley to wrap around a tree is because Dana White and the UFC have built this sport up from zero. Dana and the company needed him and he basically bitched out."

to be honest, im quite shocked and pissed bones wouldnt take on sonnen. i know he pretty much had no time to train for him but it just looks bad on his behalf. would have been his toughest test and i think hes a bit scared to take that risk. this is fight that needs to be booked in the future.

 

[DJT]

I can see where Jones is coming from. He was spending all this time training for one opponent, not Sonnen. But still I think if he was confident in his abilities he would accept the match. Real punk move by Jones letting so many people down.

 

[Ricky]

Honestly if the fight did happen I'd see Jones smashing Sonnen worse than Anderson Silva did a month ago.

 

[snipezo]

Lost respect for him. I don't care if it's on short notice, you are the champ. He messed up big time here.