UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson
The poster for UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson
Promotion	Ultimate Fighting Championship
Date	September 1, 2012 (cancelled)
Venue	Mandalay Bay Events Center
City	Las Vegas, Nevada
Event chronology
UFC 150: Henderson vs. Edgar II UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson UFC 152: Jones vs. Belfort

UFC 151: Jones vs. Henderson^[1] was a plannedmixed martial arts event that was to be held by theUltimate Fighting Championship on September 1, 2012, at theMandalay Bay Events Center inLas Vegas, Nevada. It was to be headlined by aUFC Light Heavyweight Championship bout, between championJon Jones and former dual-divisionPRIDE FC andStrikeforce championDan Henderson. However, the event was cancelled on August 23, when the UFC announced Henderson was unable to fight due to injury, and Jones refused to take a replacement fight against longtime middleweight contender,Chael Sonnen.^[2]

The fight betweenThiago Tavares andDennis Hallman was originally scheduled to take place atUFC 150, but was moved to this event on July 12, 2012.^[3]

Josh Koscheck was expected to faceJake Ellenberger, but pulled out of the bout, citing a back injury and was replaced by returning veteranJay Hieron.^[4]

On August 23,Dana White announced that Henderson had sustained a partial rupture of hisMCL and had withdrawn from the fight. White then announced via press conference that UFC 151 would be the first event in the organization's history to be cancelled, after Jones declined to fightChael Sonnen, who agreed to take the fight on eight days' notice. Initially, White announced that Jones would defend his title againstLyoto Machida atUFC 152 and that UFC 151 simply would not take place.^[5] Later, it emerged that Machida declined to fight Jones on such short notice. The UFC announced that former UFC Light Heavyweight ChampionVitor Belfort would challenge Jon Jones at UFC 152.^[6]

Initial reports indicated thatUFC 152, scheduled to take place three weeks later, would be renamed UFC 151. However, Zuffa announced that UFC 152 would keep its name and UFC 151 would officially be deemed a "lost show".^[7] UFC middleweight champion at the time,Anderson Silva reportedly offered to save the event by fighting any light heavyweight other than Jon Jones,^[8] and UFC middleweight contender at the timeChris Weidman also inquired about fighting Jones,^[9] but both offers arrived too late, after cancellation processes began.

Dana White blamed the cancellation on Jones and his coach Greg Jackson, who advised him that accepting the fight with Sonnen on short notice would be the "biggest mistake of [his] entire career".^[10] However, some MMA analysts see the UFC at fault for promoting thin cards.^[11] With fights occurring nearly every weekend, the pool of fighters available as substitutes when injuries occur is shallow.^[12][13]CBS Sports columnist Gregg Doyel argued Dana White's mishandling of UFC 151 proved that UFC competitors need a union, stating: "...fights fall through all the time – the flimsy card fell apart. This was the UFC's fault. This was UFC president Dana White's fault."^[14] Dan Henderson was also criticized when it later emerged that he had been injured three weeks prior to the announcement and kept quiet about it as he still hoped to compete.^[15]

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