UFC
UFC 151: Dan Henderson's coach reveals knee injury was suffered three weeks ago
Aug 24, 2012 - 4:00:09 PM

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has been receiving the brunt of criticism for the cancellation of UFC 151 after refusing a last minute fight with Chael Sonnen, but he wouldn't have been in that spot to begin with had Henderson's camp alerted the UFC of his injury sooner.

In an interview with Fighter's Only, one of Henderson's coaches, Daniel Woirin, revealed that his knee injury was sustained three weeks ago, but he didn't pull out of the fight until earlier this week.

"Dan Henderson got hurt three weeks ago during sparring when he went to defend a takedown and for a while he has to be away from training, for two to three weeks," Woirin said. It was very difficult for him to refuse the fight. All the team had to convince him not to do it."

"We did a final sparring yesterday to evaluate his condition and he really didn't have the chance to fight with Jones. It is so depressing for everybody. Many things are involved in a high-level fight like this one, but unfortunately, this happened."

Penick's Analysis: If Henderson's camp had let the UFC know there was a potential issue when the injury happened, they could have gone to Jones three weeks ago to ask him about facing a replacement if Henderson couldn't fight. Based on his reasoning that it was a timing, not an opponent, issue, Jones would have been able to prepare for a replacement and UFC 151 would still be on. But nope, it's all Jon Jones' fault, right?

[Dan Henderson art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]