Ufc 151 cancelled
 

press conference right now. dana white said hendo had to back out b/c of a partial mcl tear. sonnen stepped up to take hendo's place, but jones backed out of fighting sonnen.

jones will now fight machida at ufc 152 in toronto

white completely throws greg jackson under the bus, said he convinced jones not to fight sonnen.

white re: greg jackson: "this guy is a ****ing sports killer"

What? For the Calgary card they change every fight on the card but they cancel this one?

LOL. Joke.

As I just joked with my former boss-still-good friend Matt Brown from Heavy MMA, I’ve never been so excited for a conference call in my whole life. We both called in super-early to ensure we’re on the line right when this thing gets underway.
Here’s the latest speculation: Henderson is indeed hurt and will not be fighting next weekend. From there, the juicy is that Lyoto Machida was offered the spot and turned it down. Chael Sonnen was then offered the spot, accepted the bout, and Jon Jones declined the fight.
Here we go with UFC President Dana White…
This is probably one of my all-time lows of being President of the UFC in 11 years.
For the first time in 11 years, we’re cancelling an event. UFC 151 at Mandalay Bay is off.
Dan Henderson has a partial tear in his knee.
Hard to find a replacement. One guy – Chael Sonnen – said not only would he take the fight, but he’d fly to Vegas last night to make it happen. The UFC got things started to make it happen, but Jon Jones said he’s not fighting Chael Sonnen on 8 days notice.
A world champion and one of the pound-for-pound best has never turned down a fight, until now.
Saturday, September 22 – Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida for the UFC LHW title at UFC 152 in Toronto, Ontario.
Ben Fowlkes, USA Today: Did Jones know the full extent of the situation?
Dana: You know me; he knows what the consequences were and what would happen.
Fowlkes: Did you talk to Machida about this – and he only wanted to do this on a longer time frame?
White: Machida was already in the air (on his way to Brazil). I can accept that; completely different circumstances, completely different story.
Fowlkes: With Jones turning down Sonnen, did he know Machida would be the next choice down the line?
White: How ’bout this? His coach Greg Jackson said, “There is no way you take this fight on 8 days notice. It would be the biggest mistake of your career.” Chael Sonnen is an 185-pound fighter who wants to move up who hasn’t trained for this fight at all… this guy is a ****ing sport-killer. This guy is from another planet. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.
Ariel Helwani: How long is Dan Henderson going to be out for?
White: Not sure. He has a partial tear in his MCL, but we can’t sit around waiting to see if he’s ok for the 22nd.
Helwani: Did Jones say anything about “I won’t fight Sonnen, but I’ll fight this guy?”
White: No.
White: No champion has ever turned down a fight. Tito was a pain in the ass to deal with, but he never turned down a fight.
John Morgan: Did Jones say he wasn’t taking the fight because of Jackson’s advice?
White: That’s exactly why he’s not taking the fight.
Morgan: He’s been saying he’s a business man. Is he lacking the heart of a fighter? Thoughts on his “business savvy?”
White: You’re not a business man; you’re a fighter. If he was a business man, we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Morgan: Does Hendo maintain #1 contender spot?
White: Not sure – look what happened to Rashad.
Morgan: Why not move it to TV?
White: Not enough time. I can’t do it.
Todd Grisham, ESPN: Does this impact UFC attachment to Jon Jones in terms of sponsorship?
White: Good question. I’m the wrong guy to ask because I hate UFC sponsorship.
Grisham: Was there any inkling about Henderson injury and Chael was angling early?
White: Not at all. I had to track Chael down.
Damon Martin: What happens to everybody else on the UFC 151 card?
White: We’ll figure it out. I don’t know what the fallout is going to be from this thing, but we’ll figure it out.
Martin: How much does this change your relationship with Jon Jones?
White: A lot.
Dave Meltzer, Wrestling Observer: Ramifications are gigantic; is there anything you can detail in terms of venue, PPVs, advertising. This is a big hit.
White: It’s a major, major deal. We lose ****loads of money. We’re 8 days out. We spent ****loads of money on this fight. We’ve been talking about it all morning about how far it goes and how bad it hurts, but I don’t know yet.
Meltzer: Ticket refunds?
White: Yes – call TicketMaster or whoever. Hopefully you can get flights rescheduled.
Meltzer: When did you make the decision to pull the plug?
White: An hour ago.
Meltzer: Was it just a refusal to fight anyone on that day?
White: Yep.
White: Me and Lorenzo are both disgusted (with Jones). (Missed the question)
White: I don’t know why a guy who is a world champion and considered one of the P4P best wouldn’t fight anybody.
Matt Erickson, Junkie: You said Chael wouldn’t get a title shot if he beats Forrrest…
White: And I also said Chael would not talk his way to the title, but the thing with Chael – when things are normal, Chael would have had to beaten three nasty guys to get to the title, but when the chips are down, this is the guy you call and he’ll fight anybody. He’d fight him tonight. He talks the craziest **** ever, but he backs it up.
Erickson: Worried about backlash from fans about Sonnen-Jones?
White: No – lots of people probably wouldn’t have wanted to see it, but by Friday, Chael Sonnen would have convinced a lot of us that he was going to win.
Erickson: Can you put a dollar figure to the losses?
White: It’s massive.
Erickson: Flyweights now become co-main in Toronto; did you think of moving it so it could headline?
White: No.
Brett Okamoto, ESPN: Do you not have something in championship contracts that say, “The UFC has the ultimate ruling on things” or anything like that?
White: I can’t make somebody fight. I can’t do that. You’re either a fighter or you’re not. This is what we all do for a living. I have a building here in Vegas that 250 people have been busting their ass to promote this fight. You know what – Good for you Jon Jones, you’re rich and you’ve got money, you don’t need to take this fight, but there’s a lot of guys who need this fight to feed their families.
Ariel Helwani: What did Jones say about fighting Machida?
White: I can tell you this – he ain’t turning down Machida. If I get a call that says he won’t fight Machida, we’ll be having another conference call this afternoon.
Broke from the call to do The MMA Show with Mauro Ranallo on TheScore.com

this card was being caried by the main event in a huge way though

Audio at bottom of this page

http://www.411mania.com/MMA/news/252066

or here

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ltcsonk...onference-call

Holy ****.

I mean the UFC/MMA falls a little down my totem pole (NHL>NCAAFootball>NFL>MMA) of sports I watch but MAN has this year been brutal for every fight I've wanted to see and guys I am a fan of. And Hendo is right at the top. A knee at his age, it's done. And as a result cancelling an entire event?! That is insane.

What's the story on Machida? Did he turn down the 8days notice? I imagine he walks around at a ridiculously high weight.

But yeah, if any good can come of this is Jackson getting torn apart by Dana (not that I like Dana either but I've despised Jackson for some time).

And speaking of guys I despise, I will give Chael an ounce of credit for willing to be a sacrificial lamb. I wouldn't have wanted to see that fight at all, but whatever.

This HURTS the UFC big time (for me).

so who else was gonna pick hendo in fantasy?

Dana is pissed

UFC 151 cancelled, Jon Jones to fight Lyoto...

How about the other fighters on the card who had nothing to do with the fight?! They need to make a living too.

What a mess this is. Sucks for the fighters and the fans.

jones woulda killed chael....lol but i wouldnt mind seeing a jones-machida rematch. im a fan of both fighters.

i seriously had to just listen to some clown tell me chael jones fight would bring in more money then jones-hendo. haha ya right

honestly, its probably true. people who arent big mma fans know who chael sonnen is, but they have no idea who hendo is outside of KO of the year.

i get your point, but hendo is a better fighter and would be a better fight to watch. Now we get to hear chael run his usual mouth like hes some big **** lol

Who cares if Dana White is pissed?

The guy is just a greedy **** after hearing his comments. Do anybody think he is worried about the undercard fighters? In the first chance he will cut anybody in that category if he doesnt perform or makes him money.

I really hope someone takes over. He disrespected many great fighters who decided to not fight in the UFC.

MMA will never be a major sport if he is still a president. Imagine a press conference where major media will be involved. He would try to scare them too? How many major newspapers covers his sport? The Fox ratings are not that great and it wont be better imo (i am not from the USA but i know the ESPN and other major networks doesnt cover them).

I am not a big Jon Jones fan myself, but he can turn fights down. If he beats Chael, what he earns? Remember the thing White said about Fedor fighting Hendo?