If Dana White wants to blame anyone for the cancellation of UFC 151, Jon Jones suggests he take a good look in the mirror.
The light heavyweight champ has carried the brunt of the blame for the first-ever canceled event in UFC history.
He was initially slated to face Dan Henderson, but a knee injury forced the 42-year-old legend to pull out a week prior to the event.
Top middleweight contender Chael Sonnen offered to step up as a late replacement, but Jones opted against a change of opponent on such short notice.
With Jones turning down the fight, the UFC decided it was best to cancel the event entirely. A furious White put together a media conference call, where he lashed out against Jones for not taking the fight with Sonnen.
He called Jones’ decision “selfish and disgusting.” In mere minutes, Jones went from UFC poster boy to being the most hated man in MMA history.
About a week after the announcement, White sat down with Ariel Helwani on Fuel TV’s UFC Tonight to talk about a moment he called one of his “all-time lows.” Helwani challenged White early in the interview by admitting he didn’t believe it was fair to pin the collapse of an entire fight card on Jones.
Surprisingly, White nodded his head in agreement.
“I agree with that. You’re right. This might be the first time I ever agree with you, and I agree with you. You’re absolutely right,” said White.
“Dan Henderson knew two weeks before the fight, two weeks before he told me he was injured. He knew, and had he given me that two weeks, like he should have, this fight might have happened.”
Despite a minor shift in his stance, White told Helwani that he has “no regrets” about the comments he made during the conference call. Along with Henderson, he still believes Jones is at fault for the cancellation of the event that left 20 other fighters out of work.
Are Jones and Henderson truly at fault, or is there something to be said about the UFC’s recent string of less-than-desirable fight cards?
White has always boasted that the one thing separating MMA from boxing was full fight cards. In MMA, fans can expect exciting, marquee matchups from top to bottom. Boxing typically delivers lackluster cards with a marquee main event as a cherry on top.
Jones believes the UFC gradually got away from putting on full fight cards, and it came back to bite them at UFC 151. The promotion put all its eggs into one basket, and when the main event fell through, there was nowhere to run.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Jones shed light on the positives that will hopefully come from this unfortunate situation.
I think in the future, this can make me and Dana even better off. For him to get out how he felt about me in that situation, it will help me look at things more business-oriented. A lot of good can come out of it. Fighters can learn the lesson of doing what’s best for themselves and not feeling like puppets. I think the UFC has learned a lesson of making sure they stay loyal to the fans and give them full cards.
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