UFC 151 is the story that just won’t seem to go away. The infamous show fell through when Jon Jones refused to fight Chael Sonnen on short notice. Most criticized Jones but a new revelation by the American Gangster may change some opinions.
[adinserter block=”1″]The beauty of Chael getting a weekly slot on UFC Tonight is that you just never know what he is going to say. Likely by design, Chael has been kind enough to offer up a juicy quote at least once a week on the Fuel TV UFC magazine show. His newest though is likely to open up some old wounds.
Jon Jones is still having a hard time winning fans months after refusing to defend the UFC light heavyweight title with short notice against Sonnen. Critics, including UFC president Dana White felt that Jones would have been had a massive advantage over Sonnen since Sonnen had not even been in camp. Jones’ team felt otherwise and accused Sonnen and Henderson of a conspiracy. Greg Jackson felt that Sonen had indeed been in camp and had been working with Hendo secretly to prepare for the fight well before Henderson officially withdrew. A new revelation from Sonnen supports that theory.
“You know, it really got put together through Little Nog’s cowardice,” Sonnen said. “I’ve been training for Shogun for a while. I knew this was going to happen. This kind of reminds me of the time me and Dan Henderson set up Jon Jones on eight days’ notice.”
Sonnen then turned to the camera and said, “he finally admitted it.”
The one thing you have to always keep in mind with Chael is whether he is toying around with the media or if he is really telling the truth. If he is telling the truth, that would make his manager Mike Roberts a liar. Roberts was adamant back in September that Chael had not been in camp and would be coming into the fight with only one-week of training.
“Everybody’s saying that Chael knew about Dan being hurt, that’s why he was talking about Jon (Jones). No, Chael was talking about Jon because Jon is the 205-pound champion and that is where Chael is shooting for; that’s who he wants to fight.”
Does it make you feel any different about Jones refusing the fight? I am going to guess that it does nothing to change the opinion of Dana White. I have always felt that Jones was getting much more blame about the show falling apart than he deserved. Knowing that he was being set up is just more reason to leave it alone and bury the incident once and for all.
[adinserter block=”2″]If and this is a big if Chael is telling the truth, it is disappointing that nobody in the media ever picked up on this story. The same media that were brutalizing Jones for refusing the fight either didn’t do enough investigative work or were sworn to secrecy by Sonnen’s camp. Either way I wonder what the questions at that infamous conference call would have sounded like if someone in the media were able to corroborate the accusations from Jones’ camp.
[amazon_link id=”0062195638″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]GSP – The Way of the Fight Book[/amazon_link]
[amazon_link id=”1936608979″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]Anderson Silva – MMA Instruction Manual: The Muay Thai Clinch, Takedowns, Takedown Defense, and Ground Fighting[/amazon_link]
UFC shirts and videos on Amazon.com
