Just hours ago the bomb was dropped that Dan Henderson has injured his knee and has been forced to withdraw from his UFC 151 title fight vs champion Jon “Bones” Jones.
Always ready to rise to the occasion Chael Sonnen was ready, willing and waiting to take the fight on 8 days notice.
Instead, UFC light heavyweight champ Jones opted to instead take a fight with number 1 contender Lyoto Machida at UFC 152 in Toronto, robbing millions of fans and 20 fighters of an amazing night of action.
Listen to today’s press conference below to hear Dana White describe his lowest moment yet as UFC President with the first cancellation of a UFC event.
VIDEO COURTESY OF MMAFIGHTING AND THE UFC..
It seems as though its becoming a growing trend in MMA these days that top level fighters want to pick and chose who and when they fight. At the forefront of this controversy was non other than UFC middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva.
Silva has gone on record on more than one occasion stating that he doesn’t want to fight arguable top contender Chris Weidman. His so called reasoning for dodging a fight with Weidman is that he feels the young rising star isn’t a marketable enough name.
What Anderson seems to have failed to realize is that no matter who stands opposite him in the octagon the fans will pay the money just the same. Some will pay in hopes of watching another dominant display on the part of the champion while others will pay and sit on the edge of their seats hoping to see the UFC’s most dominant reign of terror finally come to an end.
On a positive note, love him or hate him you can’t deny that Sonnen is never one to back down from a fight, and today’s situation further cemented that stance and surely made fans out of haters. What hasn’t seemed to be mentioned yet is where Machida stood in the midst of all this and why he wasn’t chomping at the bit to step up and take the short notice fight and save the 151 card. If we had to guess he must have been advised against it by Steven Seagal.
In today’s MMA talent runs so deep that it makes no sense to want to pick and chose who and when you step into the cage. This is the profession you chose and therefore when called to work you should answer that call, if your not willing to answer that call I’m sure the local grocery store could always use another stock boy.
Fighters at the UFC level should be there for one reason and one reason only, to be the best fighter in the world and to achieve such feat you must walk through all obstacles standing in your way regardless of who that may be. Unfortunately we already know that’s not the case with light heavyweight champ Jones who has stated he fights for the money.
It’s time the UFC brass steps in and puts a halt to this growing “problem” so the fans of MMA will continue to see who the true best fighters in the world really are and so a debacle such as today’s cancellation of an entire card never happens again.