In shock news the UFC have canceled UFC 151 after it was confirmed that Dan Henderson had pulled out injured and the promotion were unable to arrange an alternative opponent for light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones.
Rumors of Henderson possibly being injured surfaced last night and White confirmed during a surprise media conference call just moments ago that the No.1 contender had a partial tear of his MCL which had forced him to pull out of the event.
With less than two weeks to go until fight night the UFC quickly scrambled to find a suitable opponent to salvage the main event, but from their things went from bad to worse.
Their first port of call was Lyoto Machida, but he was traveling in Brazil and was unable to take the fight at such short notice.
Next the UFC spoke with Chael Sonnen to sound out whether he would be interested in the fight. According to White, Sonnen jumped at the opportunity and said he’d be on the first plane out to Las Vegas.
However, White was then caught off guard when he contacted Jon Jones about the new match-up and found the champion unwilling to agree to fight him.
White told reporters that both he and UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta were “digusted” with Jones as the decision left them with no option but to take the unprecedented step of canceling the pay-per-view event entirely – something that’s never been done before in the UFC.
While all the details are still to be ironed out Jones will now face Machida at what was expected to be UFC 152 on September 22nd, but is now expected to be relabeled as UFC 151.
The other fighters who were scheduled to appear on the UFC 151 card will now be dispersed amongst other upcoming UFC events.
