By E. Spencer Kyte
Thursday was a dark day for the UFC as the company pulled the plug on UFC 151 in the wake of the headlining light-heavyweight title fight falling apart.
While there are numerous losers coming out of this scenario — fans, the UFC, Jon Jones, business partners — one man has emerged from the wreckage as a clear-cut winner: Chael Sonnen.
The trash-talking new member of the 205-pound division accepted the organization’s call to step in for his Team Quest teammate Dan Henderson against Jones on short notice after Henderson was injured. Without setting foot in the Octagon, “The Gangster from West Linn” significantly improved his place in the pecking order simply by answering the phone.
A week after Jones said the former middleweight title challenger wouldn’t talk his way into a light-heavyweight title shot when the two engaged in an entertaining back-and-forth on Twitter, it is Sonnen’s readiness to step up and face “Bones” at the last minute that has elevate his stock and put him on the short list of contenders in the light-heavyweight ranks.
“When things are normal and going the way they should go and guys are fighting, Chael Sonnen would have had to beat three nasty guys — at least — to get to Jon Jones,” said an emotionally charged Dana White during Thursday’s unexpected media conference call. “But in the heat of the moment, when things are going down, this is the guy that you pick up the phone and call and he will fight anybody. This isn’t a guy that just talks and shoots his mouth off. A guy that when other guys won’t fight on short notice, Chael Sonnen says, `I’ll fight him tonight.’ He’s that kind of a person.”
If you haven’t figured it out by now, White likes those kinds of people, and often rewards them for their willingness to do whatever it takes to help the organization.
Is Sonnen next in line for a title shot? Probably not, but he’s a hell of a lot closer today than he was at the start of the week, and depending on how things play out with Henderson and the other upcoming matchups in the light-heavyweight division, there is a chance we see the 35-year-old “Voice of Reason” fighting for a UFC title again much sooner than expected.
We could sit here and debate how “fair” it would be for Sonnen to jump to the front of the line until we’re blue in the face, but we all know fairness isn’t the first metric used in determining fight pairings, especially not when it comes to pay-per-view headliners.
Even without Thursday’s news, a Jones-Sonnen showdown would have been a bankable attraction. With everything that has transpired in the last 24 hours, you can be sure there are plenty of fans eager to see the two men who could have headlined UFC 151 next weekend strap on their four-ounce gloves, stop calling each other names, and start punching each other in the face.
I’m not sure why Sonnen was skipped in favour of Vitor Belfort when Lyoto Machida declined to face Jones for a second time late Thursday night, but you can be sure the verbose veteran will have something to say about it in the coming days, and that will only stoke the fires of this feud even more.
Love him or hate him, Sonnen seriously boosted his stock in the eyes of the UFC through all this. Considering how many people’s standing took a hit, that’s nothing to take lightly.
E. Spencer Kyte is a regular contributor to ufc.com, UFC Magazine, and Fight Magazine, and writes the MMA blog Keyboard Kimura. Follow him on Twitter: @spencerkyte.
