After nearly eight months of trash talk, Chael Sonnen was thoroughly dominated and embarrassed by UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones in the UFC 159 main event.
Sonnen was taken down three times in the opening frame and a brutal flurry of ground and pound at the round was enough for referee Keith Peterson to call the fight off.
While Sonnen‘s body language indicated he was not a fan of the stoppage at first, he told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan after the fight that he had no problem with it (via MMA Fighting).
Most fans, fighters and analysts alike would probably agree this title fight was anything but controversial, but one of Sonnen‘s long-time friends and training partners disagrees.
Shortly after Jones tied the UFC light heavyweight record set by Tito Ortiz with five successful title defenses, former PRIDE and Strikeforce champ Dan Henderson sent out an interesting tweet.
Quick stoppage especially for a title fight.
— Dan Henderson (@danhendo) April 28, 2013
“Hendo” actually indirectly set Sonnen up for this unlikely title match up, as the Team Quest co-founder was set to headline UFC 151 against Jones back in September.
However, he sustained a knee injury just eight days before the bout, the first time he ever withdrew from a fight due to injury, and Sonnen was the only fighter willing to step up on short notice.
UFC President Dana White had no problem booking the fight, but Jones and his camp didn’t want to fight Sonnen on short notice so UFC 151 ended up being scrapped entirely (via UFC.com.)
After consistently taking shots at Jones in interviews and in social media for not accepting the fight, Sonnen eventually got the opportunity to coach season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter opposite “Bones.”
That culminated in his light heavyweight title shot last night, the first time Sonnen fought at 205-pounds since October 2005.
If Sonnen where somehow able to weather the storm at the end of round 1, there is a realistic possibility he could be the UFC’s reigning light heavyweight title holder as Jones suffered a horrific broken toe during the match up.
One would have to imagine the fight doctor would have called the fight in between rounds for such a devastating injury.
Of course, we’ll never know how that fictitious scenario would have actually played out.
Does Henderson have a valid point that the fight could have continued for at least a few more seconds or does he just have an obvious bias in the matter?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com and contributes MMA videos to The Young Turks Sports Show.
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