UFC 151 CANCELLED!

Hendo's out with a partial tear of his MCL. Dana's just told the press that the event is off. Jones will fight Machida in Toronto at 152

Sonnen offered to fight Jonest at 151 to save the event, Jones refused.

Fucking hell ! thats a blow and half........ Just wondering with UFC 151 being cancelled could there be a chance though on it is on very short notice that the rest of the card gets moved to a smaller venue and possibly broadcasted on Fuel or FX on the same date or will they be scattered on other upcoming cards ?.

Dana was asked what happens to the other fights and he said "we'll work it out".

FX event does seem the best solution.

Jones is going to take a lot of heat for this. He was just saying the other day that he fights to get paid. Facing Sonnen, who has just competed in a massive pay per view and has eight days to prepare, should be an easier pay day for him than Henderson.

Unfortunate for the other fighters not getting the chance to fight. The card was weak before the main event got cancelled so a free tv event would make sense.

Dana seemed extremely pissed off with Jones and Jackson. Also said he's not happy about the UFC sponsoring Jones.

From Hendo's Facebook page...

Sadly and unfortunately, I partially tore a ligament in my knee in training. As a result I've had to make one of the toughest decisions that I have ever had to make...for the first time in my career I am forced to pull out of a fight, my fight with Jon Jones at UFC 151. Luckily, surgery is not needed at this time and I will be completely devoted to rehabing my knee as quickly as possible. I fee
l that I owe it to my fans and all the people supporting me to fight at my full potential in order to give myself a chance to win the UFC title. I appreciate the loyal support that I have felt from my fans. I want to thank all of my coaches and team of guys for the great support with my training camp. Most importantly, I appreciate their honesty when I needed them the most to make this very difficult decision. I also want to thank Dana and Lorenzo for being so understanding and supportive. I will continue to pursue the UFC belt with all of my heart!

Updated fight card...

One side of me actually kind of doesn't blame Jones for this, as there's really very little benefit to beating Sonnen, it's pretty much a lose-lose situation. On the other hand, all those other fighters don't get to fight now, plus fans who may have tickets/travel arrangements.

However, the UFC shouldn't have made the card so weak that it'd have to be cancelled if the main event fell through. Fighters pull out injured all the time now, they need to start stacking their cards again.

Sonnen stepping in would have made this news a lot easier to stomach. Jon Jones is a disgrace for turning down that fight. Selfishly fucked over a whole fight card and lost his employers millions.

'Take the fight or you're stripped of your belt'

Nine words Dana, nine simple words

Hopefully Machida won't fuck it up this time and win the belt.

He is still the <205 lb fighter with the best chance of beating Jones.


Jones is a Heavyweight who had been preparing for a fight for 8 weeks who then turned down a fight against a Middlewight who would only have 8 days to prepare. And who offered to give him his purse.

Execrable.

That sucks, that was one of the biggest fights this year and I was really looking forward to it. It's ridiculous that they had to cancel the entire card though. Jones can't really be blamed for turning down Sonnen, what has he done to earn a shot at 205? If it was Shogun or someone like that then he would have no excuses but Sonnen is coming of a loss.

Sonnen offered to fight him non-title apparently. Said he'd even let him come in at 215. That's coming directly from Team Quest. Sonnen just wanted the fight.

Dana's not a happy boy. Listen to the audio of the conference call. Basically implies that if Jones turns down Machida something bad will happen. I hope he turns it down and gets fired the cocky prick. Dana should have made him fight Overeem as punishment.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/chael-sonnen-calls-jon-jones-a-mental-midget-dana-white-blasts-jackson-ufc-151-conference-call

Jon Jones will NOT be fighting Machida in September. Machida wanted a full camp to prepare for Jones and wasn't prepared to take only a four week camp when Jones would have had a much longer one. Machida didn't get a full camp before fighting Jones the first time and felt it cost him. Machida apparently didn't want to skip the queue either. There's something about his feeling Hendo should have a shot before him. Anyway, the fight is now:

BELFORT VS JONES.

Apparently Anderson Silva called Dana and offered to fight Jones. The UFC turned down the idea because "they'd already made a decision to cancel the event". I would imagine they also knew that Jones would not have fought Anderson.

Jones is going to get alot of heat for this, as is Jackson, and rightfully so. Dana called Jackson a sport-killer!

Dana is mega pissed.

I can understand Machidas position though, since UFC151 had already been cancelled, and he'd have to take Jones on short notice. If he lost that fight without a oproper camp, he'd never get another shot at Jones.

That said, Jones-Vitor is pretty much a non-fight, not an attraction at all.

Silva said he would fight any LHW who wasn't Jones, he may be the best fighter in the world but he isn't crazy enough to take a fight on 8 days notice against the LHW champ who has had an 8 week camp.

Seems crazy to me to give it Belfort, UFC have said they felt it was disrespectful to Mandalay Bay to make Sonnen vs. Jones just 3 weeks after it couldn't be made for UFC 151 and therefore had to result in the cancellation of the show. Suppose a fight is better than no fight though.

My head is still spinning so Vitor is fighting Jones for the Title and Machida turned the fight down....Mmmm.

I'm kind of intrigued by Vitor v Jones in the first 2 minutes of a fight Vitor is deadly and can spark anyone out but that being said IMO Vitor looked poor against Rumble in fact to me It looked like he is on the slide he looked ragged and sluggish.

Jones deserves all the heat he is getting his selfishness has affected a lot of fighters income and fucked up a lot of fans income too they will thousands flying in and booking accommodation for the event. I can't fathom why he turned down a fight with Chael that seems like an easy fight for Jones a 185'er who is coming off a defeat who is known to be mentally weak when things get tough for him. It's not like he has been asked to fight Overeem or JDS on 8 days notice.

That's what i don't get about it. Jones should beat Sonnen comfortably, especially as he has a camp under his belt and Sonnen doesnt. He had a chance to be a 'hero' and save the card, for all the other guys on the card, all the fans who have bought tickets, flights accommodation etc etc.

Instead he came up with bullshit excuses and said no. I listened to Greg Jackson's interview and he says he was asked exclusively as a coach what he should do, so he told him a fight on 8 days notice is not a good idea. But that is a stupid agrument, ignoring the facts that:

1. Jones is not taking a fight on 8 days notice. He has a camp behind him already, and Chael doesn't.

2. taking it only as a coach ignores the bigger picture of all the people the decision will screw over.

Jones and Jackson knew the effect saying no would have, and still did it. I used to be a fan, not anymore. Great fighter but the stardom has got to him. He posted some pretencious shit on Twitter in response:

"And therefore those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him" - Sun Tzu

Great, so that makes it OK to screw everyone over by not taking a fight you'd easily win....

I don't blame JJ for not fighting Sonnen on 8 days notice,no top world champion boxer would be made or even asked to do it,so I don't see why it should be different for a MMA champion.

This isn't old school or asain MMA,Where the very best of the sport are thrown into last minute scrapped together fights,with half arsed game plans and preparations.

This is supposed to be a main stream sport now and the UFC is supposed to be the pinnacle of that,where the top athletes of the sport,especially the champions,get to prepare professionally and properly,so they can give us fans the very best of themselves when it's fight time.

I don't think it's wrong for Machida to turn down the 152 match up either,if he's not ready,carrying an injury or just wants a full camp to prepare for the biggest fight of his career,then he should be allowed to prepare properly.

JJ is turning down a no win situation on 8 days notice,I don't blame him.
If he wasn't already hated or it was the other way around and Hendo had turned down fighting Cheal,there would be no where near the shit being flung around.

Machida is turning down the thing he most wants in the sport and the thing he just fought for,to earn the right to be next in line,because he'll only have a months preparation(unless of coarse he has an injury at the moment),but that's his choice,if That's what he feels he needs to be 100% prepared to be at his best,to make the most of his chance,then he deserves that choice.

ZUFFA have fucked this up,injuries happen and back up plans are their responsibilities,to blame JJ or Greg Jackson for this card collapsing, is fucked up to me,ZUFFA fucked the card,they cancelled it,they didn't have a replacement main event or any other kind of back up plan incase the worst case scenario happened,which it did,so they should take the responsibility when they can't fix it.

It's so typical of the modern world we live in and it pisses me right off,it's always someone elses fault and it's so much easier to jump straight into the blame game instead of taking responsibility for your own fuck ups.

Sonnen and Weidman both said they would fight JJ on 8 days notice,so why not Sonnen fight Weidman then.

Sonnen is no longer in the MW picture since he is now a 205lb fighter and Weidman is waiting on Silva at MW,so if the fought each other at a catch weight,the result wouldn't of effected either of their future plans and it would of been a fight that would of got fans interest while saving the card and all the fighters on it.

Speaking of what Jones has said on twitter.. i present to you one of my favourite of his tweets from 2010...

Jones gets $400k basic pay for fucks sake, he should have taken the Sonnen fight.

Well that's it then,stop the press,new front page headline "Young lad made a stupid naive statement".

Shit,I remember saying I'll never get married and I was adamant about it,15 years later,married with 2 kids.
Shit happens and we all make comments that years later we can't back up or just become plain silly naive comments,it's part of growing up and judging by some of JJ's behavior and statements,obviously he still has a good bit of growing to do.

That was also said before he was champ and before he had all the new pressures and responsibilities,that he knew nothing about,that come with being the champ.

most fighters have had to turn fights down in their careers and if they haven't yet,they eventually will.

Mayweather get's around 45Mil a fight,I bet he wouldn't take a fight on 8 days notice.

Jones is a coward. We all know that. Well, all of us except Payne.

Vitor's got precisely 4 minutes to land one of his bombs on Jones or the fight becomes a non-event. Not having to cut any weight might help Vitor. Jones should win the fight comfortably in fairness, HW vs MW, BUT Vitor just needs to land one big shot on Jones and he could take his belt away.