UFC 151: Dana White Announces Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida for New PPV

If you weren't convinced that UFC was cursed before, the news that Dan Henderson injured his knee and the company was forced to cancel the September 1 show headlined by Henderson and Jon Jones for the title should be enough to convince you.

Jones will now be fighting Lyoto Machida for the light heavyweight title on September 22, according to UFC (via Twitter):

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Jones vs. Machida 2 will take place at UFC 152 in Toronto

— UFC (@ufc) August 23, 2012"

There was another interesting development that UFC president Dana White also threw out there when he made the announcement. Jones was offered a fight with former middleweight title contender Chael Sonnen, but he turned it down (via Twitter):

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Dana: "Jon Jones said 'I'm not fighting Chael Sonnen on 8 days' notice.'.. a world champion turned down a fight, that's never happened"

— UFC (@ufc) August 23, 2012"

The other big announcement is that UFC 152, which is scheduled for Toronto on September 22, will now be called UFC 151 (via Twitter):

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Dana says UFC 152 will now be called UFC 151.

— UFC (@ufc) August 23, 2012"

Machida is probably a better fight for Jones, even though we already saw how well he matched up with him when they first met at UFC 140. 

Sonnen would have been much better for business. He is one of the best talkers in the sport, and even on eight days notice, he would have put himself out there to make sure the world was paying attention to this fight. 

Jones is the champion and has the right to accept or reject a fight on short notice, so he used his power. 

Looking at the original UFC 151 card after the Henderson-Jones fight, it was not very appealing. The semi-main event was Jake Ellenberger vs. Jake Hieron, so you can understand why UFC decided to abandon the card after no replacement fight could be found for September 1.

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