I was in the middle of writing my AFC Preview when breaking UFC news hit this afternoon. UFC 151, scheduled for September 1 in Las Vegas has been cancelled following an injury to Dan Henderson. Hendo partially tore his MCL in training and after consulting a doctor he was forced out of his Light Heavyweight Championship fight against Jon Jones.
Instead of making another blog focusing on injuries in MMA (injuries happen in all sports, it's just unfortunate that in MMA is an individual sport and a fight is canceled, in football if your quarterback is hurt you still "play to win the game') Jon Jones and Greg Jackson made this blog very easy to write (I'll get into why Zuffa is partly to blame too).
Late last night rumors were swirling that Dan Henderson would have to pull out of his fight. Once Zuffa announced a press conference call for 2 pm, their fears became a likely reality.
Once Chael Sonnen announced a move to the 205 lb division, Chael did what he does best, calling out the champion. However, his tweet around a half an hour before Dana's conference call was the most revealing:
30 min to cement your legacy. Champ or Coward? I make a lot more than you do... Show up in 8 days I'll give you my purse.
Then at 2:00 Eastern time, Dana dropped the bombshell that for the first time in history, UFC was going to have to cancel their Pay-Per-View event that was a little over a week away. White called it "One of my all time lows as President". It was announced that Chael Sonnen was the only guy to accept a fight on 8 days notice, but Jon Jones turned it down.
Jon Jones already was gaining a bad reputation from many UFC fans for being fake, and for his comments about not wanting to fight Lyoto Machida because it's a high risk low reward fight and not very profitable. Now he has made an enemy out of his boss, who said "A world champion turned down a fight, that's never happened", White even said through all the battles with Tito Ortiz, even he never turned a fight down.
White then began to take his anger out on Greg Jackson, Jones' trainer, calling him "a fucking sport killer" for advising Jon against taking the fight. Dana closed the call by saying " I don't know what to expect from Jon Jones anymore. He just selfishly made a terrible decision that affects a lot of people."
I'm speechless that Jon would turn a fight down. If you want your name to be in there with some of the greats of the Octagon, you just can't do that, plain and simple.
It was announced that Jones would fight Lyoto Machida on September 22, at the UFC 152. That fight joins a card that was headlined by Joseph Benavidez vs Demetrious Johnson to crown the Flyweight Champion, and Michael Bisping vs Brian Stann (which is likely a #1 Contender fight for Anderson Silva's belt). As for the other fights on the UFC 151 card, their status is unknown. Knowing Dana White though, I'm sure that they will be taken care of.
To take my attention off of Jones for now, some of the blame has to be placed on Zuffa's shoulders as well. It's been said for some time now that UFC is stretching itself thin by having too many cards, between PPV, Fox, FX, and Fuel. They had scheduled 32 fight cards this year, as opposed to just 20 in 2009, 24 in 2010, and 27 in 2011. On top of that, the buys for lower cards are lower than ever, because UFC is starting to do what they have criticized boxing for, putting on one fight shows.
To make a comparison, I took a random fight card from 2010 to compare to UFC 151
UFC 113
Lyoto Machida vs Shogun Rua 2
Josh Koscheck vs Paul Daley
Sam Stout vs Jeremy Stephens
Kimbo Slice vs Matt Mitrione
Patrick Cote vs Alan Belcher
While not a great card, all ten fighters were known by UFC fans. Compare that to UFC 151
Jon Jones vs Dan Henderson
Jake Ellenberger vs Jay Hieron
Dennis Siver vs Eddie Yagin
Dennis Hallman vs Thiago Tavares
John Lineker vs Yasuhiro Urushitani
I think the quality of the current pay-per-views are very inconsistent compared to what the UFC was giving fans just two years ago. They still have really good cards (Fox 5 for example), but the UFC 151 formula is a lot more common.
While I understand it's not realistic to put on 5 great fights every show, there is no reason to think that there won't be at least a great main and co-main event, and 3 decent fights. As a big UFC fan, I should never have to check Wikipedia to see who a pay-per view fighter is. Hopefully this embarrassing situation helps improve things for the future.
At the end of the day, people will forget what the undercard fights were. What will be remembered however, is Jon Jones had an option, and he chose to be a chump.
Frankie Edgar
Frankie gave "The Answer", and now all the speculation about his future can take a rest. Edgar chose to cut ten pounds, and move to the Featherweight Division. Edgar stated that he wants to try and get back in the cage before the end of the year (maybe he could be involved in the fourth and final fight on Fox 5 in December) to try out the 145 pound division.
Despite Jose Aldo's recent comments, he wants Frankie to move down so he could banish him to Bantamweight or back up to Lightweight, Dana already said he would have to win a fight or two before getting a title fight. The two matchups that make the most sense would be either Korean Zombie or Chad Mendes.
The move down makes sense, because as long as Bendo holds the 155 lb belt it's almost impossible to give Frankie a third fight. A Frankie Edgar-Jose Aldo fight has always been a dream matchup, and now Aldo's trash talk might have helped convince Edgar to make the move. Also, Frankie has an opportunity to join Randy Couture and BJ Penn, as just one of three guys to hold the gold in two different weight classes
I hope that Frankie chose this path because that's what he really wants, and not because of the pressure put on him by Dana and the media.
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