After Dan Henderson learned that he had suffered a partial tear to the medial collateral ligament in his right knee, the highly renown light heavyweight MMA fighter was left with no choice but to pull out of the September 1st, UFC 151 card at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. UFC President Dana White was left with a mad scramble to find a replacement fighter in order to save the card from being cancelled, and after having numerous fighters reject the offer to step in the octagon with Jon Jones with only eight days notice, Chael Sonnen, eagerly stepped up to the plate.
Many would think that it would be a guaranteed green light for the UFC 151 event to go on after Sonnen accepted the fight, however no one was anticipating what happened next. When word got back to Jon Jones that Chael had accepted the battle, Jon, to everyone's surprise, refused to accept the fight!
This unfortunately, has jeopardized the entire card and all of the other fighters who were scheduled to fight on it. All of the weeks of training that so many warriors put into this upcoming event are all for nothing as Dana has been forced to cancel the bouts for the first time in UFC history. Who knows if any of the fighters will be paid a single cent since they didn't get to fight, but hopefully they will since the event was cancelled out of their control.
Dana White was utterly shocked when Jones gave him the news.
"I'm stunned. We've never had a situation where this happened before, where a champion wouldn't step up to fight. Chael's been out there talking all this crazy [expletive] about Jones, but he proved that he not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. I offered the fight to a couple of guys, and believe me when I tell you, nobody wants to fight Jon Jones on [short] notice. Nobody. But when I called Chael, that crazy [expletive] said, 'Not only will I fight him, but I'll get on a plane and fight him at Mandalay Bay tonight, if that's what you want.'"
Dan Henderson, Jones' supposed-to-be opponent, was also extremely shocked about Jones refusing to fight with Chael.
"This is the first time in UFC history that the champion wouldn't step up and fight [a replacement], and I was pretty shocked to hear that. It's not like he's injured. It's unbelievable to me that he wouldn't take that 'the show must go on' attitude. If there was any way I could have gone, and any way that I thought I could give myself a chance to win, I would have done that."
Sonnen was of course very shocked at Jones backing down from fighting him, but he was full of confidence in his ability to beat him if given the chance with only eight days notice.
I was shocked and I'm shocked much more that the show was canceled. We all have to pitch in and help. It surprised me [Jones turned down the fight]. That's the first time I can recall that happening. Of course I could have won. You have to realize, I fell down in my last fight and I didn't get back up. It's not like it was a hard match for me up to that point. I'm not going to fall down again."
