It News: A LITTLE DISINGENUOUS

A LITTLE DISINGENUOUS

By James Brydon | August 28, 201

Many are to blame for the UFC 151 cancellation, but an added side effect is it will now be harder to trust what the UFC or its fighters say.

There is a twist to the Henderson-Jones-UFC 151-saga that hasn’t been addressed much until now.

According to Fighters Only Magazine, Dan Henderson was actually injured three weeks ago, not late last week, meaning there was a much earlier indication that his Sept. 1 matchup against UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones could be in jeopardy.

So does that mean that Henderson should now shoulder some of the blame for the cancellation of this week’s UFC 151 Las Vegas, which up until now has been heavily heaped on Jones after he refused to instead fight willing last-minute replacement Chael Sonnen?

The UFC light-heavyweight champion certainly thinks so, tweeting the following in response to a fan’s comment: "Glad you guys are opening up your eyes."

Not so fast. Perhaps Henderson should have given the UFC some heads up earlier. Perhaps he even did. I’m certain he felt like he could fight through the MCL injury, which he suffered and gave every effort to do so. But by not making the decision clear until late last week that he couldn’t go, it really put the UFC in a pickle.

On a conference call just two days before the announcement than Henderson was, he said, "My conditioning in training camp went perfect. I’m feeling great." Granted he isn’t going to tell Jones and the pool of reporters listening that his knee is in rough shape. But he made it sound like he was in perfect health, when we all know now he really wasn’t. I’m feeling a little misled right now is all I’m saying.

That doesn’t get Jones completely off the hook, however. While I believe he should have taken the fight with Chael Sonnen, I certainly understand why he didn’t and feel he has a right to decline it as the champion, despite the disappointing ironies I mentioned in my previous blog.

But, what’s disappointing is how he has handled the whole situation.

On Saturday, he tweeted the following: "Carrying the cross for my company's decision. If someone has to take the blame, I will accept full responsibility for the way UFC 151 was canceled. I want to sincerely apologize to all the other athletes/fans who's (sic) time and money was waisted (sic). I feel terrible about the way that was handled."

Two days later, he’s sending a message to the world in a tweet that seems to negate his empathetic statement -- and worse, it seems to suggest that he knew all along that something was going on and that he should not be the one to blame.

Here’s a look at a few more of his tweets over the past few days:

Sunday: "Another former world champion, now this is what I'm here for.." (A subtle shot at Sonnen?)

Monday: "Right back to the drawing board" (Suggesting he’s a victim of all this?)

Monday, in response to a fan who said he hopes that means he’s going to quit Greg Jackson’s team: "This team is the best thing that could've happened to my career"

Tuesday: "Extraordinary first day of practice"

There is a common theme among all his tweets since the fateful announcement last Thursday -- they are all incredibly self-serving.

Yes, I understand that is the nature (if not the purpose) of Twitter accounts. You certainly don’t go on there to bash yourself. But it smacks of disingenuousness when you post a self-serving tweet that looks like it’s being self-sacrificing.

Finally, this also does not get the UFC off the hook. I don’t run their business -- or any MMA business for that matter -- so I won’t presume to say conclusively that they had a better option than to cancel the show entirely.

Finding a different main event, even if that meant Sonnen or Anderson Silva fighting in some meaningless non-title feature fight, or switching the pay-per-view to a free card on FX -- and leaving the date/venue/event name intact -- seemed like a possibilities. You could not promote UFC 151: Ellenberger vs. Hieron on a PPV but you could make it a free card.

Of course, both of those present many logistical and advertising problems that perhaps made the outright trashing of the show the logical choice given their timeframe. At least it seemed like that at the time.

However, the result is a huge black eye for the UFC, and it means it will be hard to trust anything Dana White says again. (I know, I know, mistrust a promoter, what a shock.)

The fact is that when White says things that promote his product with the passion that his position calls for, you know with him it’s not just hot air. Fighters do deliver, the UFC does give fans fights that matter, and it often gives them for free.

However, one of White’s biggest recurring rants is about how bad the boxing model is, and one of his main points is how they build big pay-per-views around one fight and the rest of the card is garbage. Oops. I don’t know how many big boxing PPVs were cancelled nine days beforehand, but it’s certainly not something you want to do if you’re trying to distance yourself from that "dying dinosaur" sport.

If you’re constantly boasting that your fighters always deliver, you probably shouldn’t have built a fight card that only had one fight in which you truly believed that, because now the secret is out.

Yes, going forward with a weak card is worse than cancelling it, but there’s no avoiding the fact that the sequence of events that led to this decision make it look terrible for the UFC.

I also think they've compounded the problem by not renaming UFC 152. People will forever be able to go on Wikipedia and see a big empty slot by UFC 151. It will be a reminder of when many lost faith in what the UFC and its fighters say they believe.

I’m not saying that hadn’t already happened, or that it can’t be overcome. But August 23, 2011 was when the veil was lifted on a seemingly great card, and we were left with an empty void.

James Brydon is the Managing Digital Editor and blogger for sportsnet.ca's UFC section.