UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones spends a lot of time on twitter. These days, it takes a lot of guts for him to do so.
When would be-challenger Dan Henderson pulled out of his scheduled UFC 151 engagement with the champ and Jones turned down a short-notice replacement fight with Chael Sonnen, Jones was thrown under the bus by UFC President Dana White and fighters and fans alike joined in on the hate-a-thon, bashing Jones in interviews and on twitter. Jones has been all over the map since then.
First, he sequestered himself away with no comments, then he was defensive. Eventually he was apologetic. Last night he jokingly set on blaming Henderson on Twitter for their not fighting last night as he had planned.
When a fan tweeted Saturday that thanks to Jones, “he had no plans tonight,” Jones retorted with a Hemingway reference. “Thanks to the old man and his knee I don’t either,” Jones replied.
(What a nice-looking young man.)
UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones spends a lot of time on twitter. These days, it takes a lot of guts for him to do so.
When would be-challenger Dan Henderson pulled out of his scheduled UFC 151 engagement with the champ and Jones turned down a short-notice replacement fight with Chael Sonnen, Jones was thrown under the bus by UFC President Dana White and fighters and fans alike joined in on the hate-a-thon, bashing Jones in interviews and on twitter. Jones has been all over the map since then.
First, he sequestered himself away with no comments, then he was defensive. Eventually he was apologetic. Last night he jokingly set on blaming Henderson on Twitter for their not fighting last night as he had planned.
When a fan tweeted Saturday that thanks to Jones, “he had no plans tonight,” Jones retorted with a Hemingway reference. “Thanks to the old man and his knee I don’t either,” Jones replied.
See what he did there? If I hadn’t recently spent an hour and a half in a Barnes and Noble reading “The Old Man And The Sea,” without buying it afterwards, I might not have. Thankfully I did, and was ready for Jones’ great tweet. Fate.
On its face, the tweet just seems like another in a growing series of public relations gaffes for Jones. However, Jones seems to be disproportionately punished for honesty that, in other athletes, we find refreshing and endearing.
Jones might have too little of a filter, be too good, too young and too black, all at the same time. Or perhaps he just doesn’t have enough history and goodwill with fans yet to get away with that stuff.
I for one, have always smiled when I’ve heard Henderson mock an opponent, brag on himself or promise to beat the crap out of someone. Jones doing the same seems to rub me the wrong way off the bat. What’s up with that?
In any case, back to Jones blaming Henderson. It may seem ridiculous at first.
After all, no one is questioning the legitimacy of Henderson’s MCL injury. There is no reason that he should have felt compelled to fight through that.
But if he had, he wouldn’t have been the first. Chuck Liddell beat Tito Ortiz with a torn ACL and we didn’t find out about the injury until afterwards.
No one made Henderson wait a few weeks to tell the UFC about his injury, either. When he did, there was little time for them to find a logical replacement.
When Jones decided not to fight Sonnen on a week’s notice, the UFC had no other good options, in part because they hadn’t do their due diligence in checking with all their superstars who might have been willing to step in and save the event and decided to shut down their otherwise weak (in terms of marketability) event. The situation stunk.
Looks like Jones is no longer happy taking all of the blame for it. What do you say, ‘taters?
Do you want to see Jones offer a mea culpa (one in which he doesn’t compare himself to a crucified Messiah), or do you want to see him continue to embrace his villain role?
If he goes the villain route, who else could he insult on twitter to get there?
For an event that was to be headlined by two of the sports all-time greats, and a supporting cast that was pretty much garbage-ass, it’s disappointing that tonight you have no PPV to watch, no excuse to spend even more time at Hooters, and no good reason not to attend the wedding your girlfriend has been nagging you about going to. But if you thought that was going to stop us from milking this thing for everything its got, you are severely wrong, my friend.
Taking the reigns tonight is longtime CagePotato contributor/Twitter pseudo celebrity Jason Moles. This card will either be a smashing success thanks to the main event or a failure of epic proportions thanks to everything else. Stick around, insult him in the comments section, and be sure to tell all of your friends about the only UFC 151 liveblog on the internet (EVER!) can be found. Now let’s get to it.
For an event that was to be headlined by two of the sports all-time greats, and a supporting cast that was pretty much garbage-ass, it’s disappointing that tonight you have no PPV to watch, no excuse to spend even more time at Hooters, and no good reason not to attend the wedding your girlfriend has been nagging you about going to. But if you thought that was going to stop us from milking this thing for everything its got, you are severely wrong, my friend.
Taking the reigns tonight is longtime CagePotato contributor/Twitter pseudo celebrity Jason Moles. This card will either be a smashing success thanks to the main event or a failure of epic proportions thanks to everything else. Stick around, insult him in the comments section, and be sure to tell all of your friends about the only UFC 151 liveblog on the internet (EVER!) can be found. Now let’s get to it.
Preliminary card results
– Michael Johnson def. Danny Castillo via unanimous decision (29-28 x 2, 30-27)
– Jeff Hougland def. Takeya Mizugaki via submission (triangle choke), 1:12 of round 3
– Tim Means def. Abel Trujillo via TKO, 2:04 of round 1
– Daron Cruickshank def. Henry Martinez via submission (armbar), 2:59 of round 2
– Jacob Volkmann def. Shane Roller via unanimous decision (30-27 x 2, 30-28)
– Charlie Brenneman def. Kyle Noke via TKO due to injury (eyeball popped out of socket; GIF to come ASAP), 4:29 of round 2
Before we get started, I’m not typing Urshitani twenty times so he will be known as YU from here on out. Both men looked pumped. Lots of pressure to start the night of right.
Round 1: Lineker lands a nice leg kick. They both trade a few jabs. YU shoots for the takedown and gets it. Does a little G&P before Lineker wall walks his way up the cage. They separate. Both looking to make their move. It’s YU who gets another takedown. Lineker sweeps, very impressive. Lineker raining down punches. YU grabs hold of his arms. The bell sounds.
Round 2: Lineker comes out guns blazing. YU shoots for a takedown and gets stuffed. Shoots again successfully. Lineker looking for a kimura. He’s got it. Looks to be locked in. Rogan is going bananas! YU escapes and gets butterfly guard. Lineker looking to drop bombs but gets his arm caught. YU has an armbar locked in! There’s the tapout. It’s all over!
Winner: Yasuhiro Urishitani, 2:55 of round 2, submission due to armbar.
Ya know, every time I see Hallman wearing anything more than a bananna hammock I do cartwheels around my living room. Tonight is no different.
Round 1: The crowd is already booing. Looked like Tavares may have kicked as Hallman as he was attempting to touch gloves. Not to worry, Hallman is more than game to return the favor with a well-timed kick of his own. Hallman shoots a double leg. Back right up on the feet. Tavares lands a nice hook. Hallman answers with a huge right that sends Tavares to the mat. Tavares is bleeding but gets back to his feet. They clinch. If this were on FX, they’d have to swing by Home Depot for more spray paint — looks someone sacrificed a small animal in there. They break. Hallman lands an elbow backing away. Tavares is hurt but is saved by the horn.
Round 2:Seeing Arianny up close never gets old, amirite? Hallman is attacking like there’s no tomorrow. Lefts and rights flying. Tavares still bleeding like a stuck pig. Tavares moving well, too bad it’s towards Hallman’s right hand. Did this guy not see Bisping vs. Henderson at UFC 100? Hallman cuts him off, slips a hook, and boom! – Tavares is out.
It’s not fair to call Dennis Siver a one-trick pony, but it’s not like he’s got an entire arsenal at his disposal either. If there’s one thing Eddie Yagin needed to prepare for, it’s that sick spinning back kick. Siver walking out to “Last Resort” by Papa Roach. Ahh, good times. Yagin proving he’s the more sophisticated music lover with “American Badass” by Kid Rock.
Round 1: Siver opens up with a punch, kick and 3-4 solid strikes. Yagin tries to clinch, gets it. Dirty boxing against the cage. Siver breaks free and drops Yagin with a left head kick. He pounces but Yagin has recovered. Back to the clinch. Yagin shoots for a takedown and fails. Siver gets walked back and peppered with a few jabs followed by a hook. Siver blocks a head kick. End of round one. Feeling out process over, I hope.
Round 2: Siver eats a head kick. Yagin gets the clinch but does nothing. Both men tired of hugging and start fighting. Nice little back and forth here. Not sure what happened but Siver is cut. Yagin gets him against the cage and continues the punishment. Siver moves away and lands a nice body kick. Yagin stays light on his feet and gets another takedown. Full mount and lands several shots to the head. Siver gives up his back. After a scramble, Siver is on top and moves to side control. Horn.
Round 3: Siver’s cut looks nasty. Not goat vagina nasty, but still. Siver finds his range and lands a few body kicks. Excellent head kick cuts Yagin. Spinning back kick!!! Left hook by Siver. Yagin counters. These two are just banging! Another head kick by Siver. Back and forth: I punch you – you punch me. Siver gets taken down, reverses and gets locked in a triangle. Siver powers out of it. On the feet they trade some more. Horn. This one’s going to the judges.
Ellenberger doesn’t care about the Eminem Curse, trots to the cage as ‘Till I Collapse’ plays over the speakers. Hieron gets his hat stolen by some groupie. That should rake in about tree-fiddy on eBay. I should mention that this isn’t the first time these two have met. At IFL: Championship 2006 “The Thoroughbred” took Ellenberger the full three rounds and won a decision. Will tonight be any different?
Round 1: No feeling out process for these hungry lions. Hieron’s got a lot riding on tonight. Both trade leather. Ellenberger gets a double leg and knocks some sense to the returning UFC fighter. Hieron sweeps and land a few nice shots of his own. Hieron goes for an armbar. HOLY $%&@!!! Jay Hieron taps out Jake Ellenberger!!! Welcome back to the UFC! Just before he talks with Rogan, his corner slips a wreath around his neck. Well, can’t say I saw that one coming.
Winner: Jay Hieron, 1:07 of round 1, submission due to armbar.
Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Jon “Bones” Jones defends his UFC Light heavyweight title for the first time since driving drunk and crashing his Bentley against 40 year old TRT king, Dan “Hendo” Henderson. If Henderson wins, does that make him the light heavyweight GOAT?
Ahh yes, the extended fight preview to make up for the quick finishes. Now is the time to grab a quick snack or hit the can. You won’t want to miss anything after Buffer starts screaming.
Jones looks nervous, but he always does (I think so, anyway) and he always wins. Henderson looks happy to have a chance to finally win that elusive UFC gold. No matter the outcome, Hendo is a legend and has his spot reserved in the UFC Hall of Fame.
Round 1: Let’s do this! Jones runs across the cage and lands a flying knee. Shoots for a takedown, but Hendo’s wrestling stuffs it almost immediately. Dan shoots and gets a takedown. Hendo can’t hold the young lion. Jones back on his feet but Dan is boxing him into the fence. Henderson trips him and moves into half guard. Jones eats a few punches but manages to escape. Henderson clinches and dirty boxes Jones. Jones drops levels and gets the takedown. Jones cant hold him. Hendo back up. Jones lands a spinning back fist that cuts the former PRIDE champ. End of round 1.
Round 2: Jones using his reach quite well. Lighting up Hendo. Now they’re both trading leather. Hendo bloodies Jones. Never saw this before! Henderson smells blood and gets the takedown. They scramble and both trade top position. Hendo gets full mount but seems too tired to do anything with it. There we go, he’s dropping elbows now. I wonder if Jones even knew he could bleed? Henderson peppers him with pillow punches until the horn. Shouldn’t the ref have stood them up?
Round 3: Dan “waists” no time trying to get the champ to the ground. Jones on his back, Hendo in half guard, a few strikes getting through. Bones blocking most. Henderson finds an opening and rocks Jones. Quickly recovers and back on the feet, Jones is truly being tested for the first time in his pro career. Henderson clinches and tosses him to the mat. Side control and H Bombs are firing. Herb Dean calling for the champ to protect himself . Hendo continues the onslaught. That’s it! We have a new champion! Dan Henderson has now won the most prized crown in all of combat sports: the UFC championship! The crowd is nucking futs. They’ve just witnessed history. Buffer seems ultra exited to declare Henderson the new champ.
Winner: Dan Henderson, 3:10 of round 3, TKO
Henderson says he’s not done fighting yet, but admits it won’t be too long before he hands up the gloves and puts his teeth back in. As all champions should, Henderson tells Rogan that he’ll face whomever Joe Silva and Dana White put in front of him. He then thanks his fans, the UFC, and his sponsors. Surprisingly, no mention of TRT.
Jones apologizes for his performance and apologizes to the fans and the UFC. Joe asks him what’s next and he says he’ll head back to Jackson’s and watch the tape to see what went wrong. Says he’ll be back stronger than ever, and he too, will face anyone they put in the cage with him, unless, you know, it’s on short notice.
End-of-night bonuses:
Submission of the Night: Jay Hieron
KO of the Night: Dennis Hallman
Fight of the Night: John Lineker vs. Yasuhiro Urishitani
Jon Jones continued his magical run onto the S-List of most MMA fans today by posting this gem on his Twitter account:Thanks to the old man and his knee I don’t either “@aarondkuehn: Thanks to @jonnybones I have no plans tonight….”—…
Jon Jones continued his magical run onto the S-List of most MMA fans today by posting this gem on his Twitter account:
Thanks to the old man and his knee I don’t either “@aarondkuehn: Thanks to @jonnybones I have no plans tonight….”
There appears to be some sort of public relations education issue with Jones, but you already know that. For more on this tweet and how he has blamed Dan Henderson for the cancellation of UFC 151, you can head over to Jonathan Snowden’s column that he posted earlier today which also includes Jeremy Botter’s take.
I’m tired of all things related to Bones Jones. However, with UFC 152 still three weeks away, I thought I’d bring up one last thing that I feel could make or break the perception of the UFC as we move past this tumultuous year.
With every bit of news that comes from Jones, it makes me wonder if this is how it would have been should Tito Ortiz have had access to a Twitter account during his “Bad Boy” days. How great (or horrible) would it have been to see the tweets exchanged between Ortiz and Dana White about dodging a fight or other contract issues.
I’ve long been a fan of Ortiz, but there were times when I really couldn’t stand the guy he was portraying in and around the Octagon. He was always about how much money he was going to earn, and he always thought he was greater than he really was. Even as his career ended with only winning one fight in his final six years with the UFC, Ortiz still thought of himself as a legend.
Ortiz built that foundation of a legend for being who he was in the late ’90s and throughout the first decade of 2000. He was public enemy No. 1, and love him or hate him, he brought a reaction and a following. People tuned in regardless of how they felt about him. They either wanted to see him win or get his oversized head knocked into the crowd.
Jones didn’t have an agenda to become a villain like Ortiz did, but a villain he has become. I feel Jones can do a lot of harm to the UFC as a brand if he doesn’t snap back into the person we first saw enter the Octagon.
People who dislike the NBA do so because they can’t stand the overpaid, selfish and egotistical athletes. Fans have been been drawn to other sports like MMA because there is a perceived notion that more athletes are performing out of passion rather than a dollar amount. Obviously, these fighters need to be paid, and we are approaching a very volatile time for the UFC as enter this new era. Perhaps, the “Jon Jones era.”
The reason Jones is the UFC’s biggest headache is simple. If other elite fighters see Jones can disrespect the organization and choose to reject potential fights, we then begin to lose a portion of why the UFC has become so successful.
Historically, for the most part, fighters (both prospects and champions) have fought whoever the UFC has set before them. Now that major companies such as Nike see the potential for revenue from endorsing somebody like Jones, we may start to see more popular fighters reject who the organization wants them to fight.
If this becomes a recurring theme, the UFC is going to think of the Tito Ortiz era as a cakewalk, compared to the inflated egos that may be fighting within the Octagon in the near future.
Can we, as fans, be bitter toward fighters if they don’t want to fight the best for every single one of their fights? Should they be afforded the opportunity to have a few “cupcake” fights every now and then to build up their win total which would, perhaps, help them land a big-time sponsor?
We can all agree that the UFC does a great job, for the most part, with matching up the best with the best. We just don’t know how much longer they’re going to be able to make their fighters say yes more often than not.
If you’ve grown tired of the “Bones Jones” saga, well, you haven’t seen anything yet.
Joe Chacon is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and a staff writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.
If there’s been one guy who’s come out of the UFC 151 debacle looking universally bad to MMA fans, it’s Jon Jones. It’s been one mishap after another as far as fan relations are concerned. The backlash for Jones may continue after this tidbit of inform…
If there’s been one guy who’s come out of the UFC 151 debacle looking universally bad to MMA fans, it’s Jon Jones. It’s been one mishap after another as far as fan relations are concerned. The backlash for Jones may continue after this tidbit of information.
As reported by Franklin McNeil on MMA Live, a source close to Jones stated that the UFC champion offered to pay the purses of the fighters due to the event being canceled. Jones’ good deed, however, never happened due to Twitter.
“A source from very close to him said Jon Jones was willing to pay the fighters, he felt so bad about the card being cancelled, he was willing to pay the fighters on that card their fees. But after all these attacks on him by other fighters, he chose not to do that. He feels really bad about this situation and did not expect the entire card to be cancelled.”
It’s easy to understand why Jones wouldn’t want to face a guy the caliber of ChaelSonnen on such short notice, but he isn’t doing himself any favors with MMA fans with information like this being leaked out.
With the reports recently about Jones asking Dana White to tell Sonnen to lighten up on the verbal attacks combined with this news, Jones’ image continues to suffer terribly. I don’t get why he would change his mind so quickly on a charitable notion like this unless he didn’t really want to do it in the first place.
It almost sounds like Jones was looking for a way out of doing this due to the petty reasoning behind it. It’s admirable the Jones would even offer to do something like this, but to refuse based off fighters being upset with him is a little ridiculous. Did he expect the guys on the card to be fine with their livelihoods being jeopardized by the card being canceled?
Obviously, nobody called “no take backs” on Jones’ donation.
In a perfect world this would be a UFC 151 preview of Bones vs Hendo. Instead, one bum knee and a fight cancellation later we’ll get a UFC Light Heavyweight matchup between Vitor Belfort and Jon Jones.Jones will enter the Octagon on the 22nd …
In a perfect world this would be a UFC 151 preview of Bones vs Hendo. Instead, one bum knee and a fight cancellation later we’ll get a UFC Light Heavyweight matchup between Vitor Belfort and Jon Jones.
Jones will enter the Octagon on the 22nd a huge favorite. But does that mean Vitor doesn’t have a puncher’s chance of winning? Of course not.
In the past six years, Vitor has only three losses coming at the hands of Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson and Alistair Overeerm. So needless to say, the former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion will give the incumbent all he can handle.
Let’s look at how they stack up against each other.
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has received no shortage of criticism for his handling of the UFC 151 fiasco, and now that the day he was supposed to defend his title has come, fans are wondering what to do with their Saturday night.A Twi…
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has received no shortage of criticism for his handling of the UFC 151 fiasco, and now that the day he was supposed to defend his title has come, fans are wondering what to do with their Saturday night.
A Twitter follower of Jones contacted the Light Heavyweight Champ, letting him know that his weekend plans were shot because of the cancellation.
Jones took the opportunity to empathize with the fan, while passing the blame onto Dan Henderson, who pulled out of the fight because of an injury.
Thanks to the old man and his knee I don’t either “@AaronDKuehn: Thanks to @JonnyBones I have no plans tonight….
It’s cool that Jones took the shot in good humor and invested the time to play along with a follower, but his remark only prompted an onslaught from other Twitter users (remarks on Jones’ Twitter page) rehashing the sentiment that he deserves the lion’s share of blame for the event cancellation. Some users ditched the rhetorical approach altogether and simply expressed their general disgust for him.
There is little doubt Jones would love to see this whole thing blow over sooner rather than later, but shifting the blame to Henderson, a very popular fighter, may not do much for him on that front. And if the early responses to his comment are any indication, it may only make matters worse.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was no mention of Chael Sonnen, who he declined to fight on eight days’ notice, in Jones’ Tweet.
Any guesses on whether or not Sonnen will have something of his own to say on the matter?
Jon Jones continued his magical run onto the S-List of most 