UFC 151 Cancelled: Jon Jones Smart to Turn Down Bout with Chael Sonnen

UFC light heavyweight contender Dan Henderson injured his knee in training, forcing him to pull out of his UFC bout with Jon Jones. The chance to challenge Jones for the title was then offered to Chael Sonnen, but Jones wisely refused to accept him as his opponent, and the fight has been scrapped.

UFC president Dana White announced the unprecedented cancellation via UFC’s Twitter:

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UFC 151 news from Dana: "This is one of my all-time lows as president... For the first time in 11 years we're gonna cancel an event."

— UFC (@ufc) August 23, 2012"

White was clearly disappointed with Jones and impressed by Sonnen’s courage. Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole quotes White as saying the following:

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I'm stunned. We've never had a situation where this happened before, where a champion wouldn't step up to fight

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.”

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Sonnen certainly deserves admiration for agreeing to the fight. Few fighters would be brave enough to put themselves in such a risky situation.

Meanwhile, though, Jones will have a vast amount of criticism heaped onto him going forward, and that is unfair. He's simply making the best move for his career.

Sonnen had everything to gain by agreeing to the fight and little to lose. He is coming off a fight where he lost handily to Anderson Silva. This was an opportunity to put his name back among the elite UFC fighters by going against the only man capable of touching Silva’s status as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

Even though Sonnen had not been training, this could have been his best shot at Jones. He may have been able to catch the champion off-guard. Jones has been preparing to fight Henderson, in what likely would have been a bout with both fighters spending most of the contest on their feet. Sonnen, however, would have tried to get Jones on the ground, as he attempted to do to Silva.

For Jones, there was nothing to gain by agreeing to the fight with Sonnen. If he won, he would have beaten an out-of-shape fighter who was coming off a loss and moving up a weight class. It would have been an all-too-predictable result that added nothing to Jones’ résumé. The risk was certainly not worth the reward.

Jones will now fight Lyoto Machida on September 22, according to MMA Weekly. This fight was called UFC 152, but it will now become UFC 151.

By fighting Machida, Jones will be taking on a top fighter in his weight class. He will also have time to fully prepare for the fight. He is making the wisest move possible for his career.