Injuries
Dana White says UFC's original plan was Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson in Feb., injury layoff led to Chael Sonnen bout
Oct 16, 2012 - 9:30:21 PM Dana White says UFC's original plan was Jon Jones vs. Dan Henderson in Feb., injury layoff led to Chael Sonnen bout

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The UFC booking Jon Jones against Chael Sonnen next April following a coaching stint on The Ultimate Fighter was not the original plan. Hours after news hit that the fight had been booked, UFC President Dana White revealed that it only came about after Jones' arm injury required more rehabilitation time than initially expected.

In an interview with Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports, White revealed that the injury layoff threw a wrench in what they had initially wanted to put together.

"This wasn't where I was going," White said. "But when this happened and Jones was going to be out for so long, it made sense. I understand completely [about Sonnen not having won a fight at light heavyweight], but it's a fight people want to see."

Some people want to see it, for sure, but many others have been less than thrilled by the UFC's decision to book the fight. Indeed, the prevailing thought has been that Dan Henderson remained the number one contender, and should have been the next to get a shot at Jones.

According to White, that was just what they were going to do. The fight between Jones and Henderson was being penciled in for Super Bowl weekend in February, but with Jones' return being pushed back even further, the timing worked out to have he and Sonnen coach on TUF, then fight at the end of the season in April. White also refuted the idea that the move to put them on TUF was a reaction to sagging ratings on FX.

"That's what the word is, that TUF needs the help?" White asked incredulously when the topic was broached. "People love to speculate and talk [expletive], but the truth of it is, they don't know what the [expletive] they're talking about. I have all the answers. The Internet does not. We built this company and we know what we're doing. That had nothing to do with it."

Penick's Analysis: Whether that's a smokescreen or White's typical brush off response of speculation, the fact of the matter is that ratings are down, and these two wouldn't have been booked on TUF if they didn't think it would drive interest. That might not be the driving motivation behind the fight booking, but it's certainly at least partially involved. As for the fight itself, I definitely would have liked to see Jones-Henderson take place in February Super Bowl weekend, but if he couldn't return until April I also understand someone else getting the fight. Now, you can argue that someone else still should have gotten the fight over Sonnen, but they're filming the show later this month, and a challenger other than Henderson wouldn't emerge until after filming. And keeping Henderson out even further after an injury and missing all of 2012 already wouldn't have made sense when they've got Machida in line as well for that matchup. This isn't the "best fighting the best," but again it's one of those fights that could be enjoyable, and every so often those types of fights are acceptable, even with the Title on the line.

[Chael Sonnen art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]