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What the cancellation of UFC 151 means for Toronto
In 11 years as president of the UFC, Dana White called it one of his "all-time lows." On Thursday, White announced the cancellation of UFC 151 which was slated for September 1st in Las Vegas. The decision was made after Dan Henderson was forced to turn down his shot at the Light Heavyweight Championship due to an MCL tear and then Jon Jones refused to fight replacement opponent Chael Sonnen.
Jones' refusal shocked the UFC president, and for a moment Sonnen, who was knocked out by Anderson "The Spider" Silva in July, seemed to have saved the card when he jumped at the opportunity to take on Jones on such short notice.
Granted, should Jones have accepted the tilt with Sonnen, he would have had just eight days to prepare for the new challenger when he had months to prepare for Henderson, however that didn't change White's feelings.
[Related: Jon Jones' tough decision triggers outrage]
He told Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports:
"I'm stunned. We've never had a situation where this happened before, where a champion wouldn't step up to fight."
So for the first time in the company's history the UFC is shutting down an event because, without Jones' cooperation, a main event for the card is impossible to schedule.
But no Jones in Vegas could perhaps be the most exciting UFC news for Toronto since Mark Hominick's hematoma, as the Light Heavyweight champion will now take on Vitor Belfort in the co-main event of the September 22nd card in Toronto, a change from the original plan of a Jones-Machida rematch, which Jones didn't seem to show any interest in.
He recently told ESPN.com:
"I don't want to fight Lyoto Machida. He was my lowest pay-per-view draw of last year. No one wants to see me fight Lyoto Machida. I don't want to fight Lyoto again. Lyoto is high-risk and low-reward."
Prior to Thursday, Toronto's main event was a Flyweight title fight between Joseph Benavidez and Demetrious Johnson — a fight that had UFC middleweight Michael Bisping sounding off.
[More: Who is to blame for UFC 151 cancellation?]
Bisping, who'll fight Brian Stann said at a media event in Toronto:
"Regardless of what the midgets said at the press conference (referring to 125-pound Benavidez and Johnson), me and Brian Stann are the main event. We're the ones that are going to sell this card. It's going to be a hell of a fight."
While Bisping was likely just trying to hype his fight with Stann, he isn't completely off-base. Prior to Thursday his name probably resonated most with UFC fans who've yet to see Benavidez or Johnson fight in the octagon. And though the chance to watch the first Featherweight Championship fight may be appealing to die-hard UFC fans, to the average fan the biggest criticism of the Toronto card was that it lacked "star power" and there's no doubt that the addition of Jones — one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the UFC — to the card makes for a more attractive sell.
[Also: Sonnen and Weidman volunteered to take fight with Jones]
It won't be easy for White to get over UFC 151 in terms of dollar signs. He said Thursday that the cancellation of the September 1st event cost the UFC "millions and millions of dollars" but the addition of a Jones-Belfort fight makes the Toronto card a more enticing one to watch, especially since the highly-anticipated fight between up-and-coming Canadian Rory MacDonald and B.J. Penn was pushed off the Toronto card and rescheduled for December due to a MacDonald injury
And with how highly White talks of Canadian UFC fans, the addition of another title fight to Toronto's card, perhaps will help the UFC president make up for the disappointment of UFC 149 in Calgary.
