UFC
UFC 151: Dan Henderson says Chael Sonnen didn't know about his injury ahead of time
Aug 27, 2012 - 6:45:18 PM UFC 151: Dan Henderson says Chael Sonnen didn't know about his injury ahead of time

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

One of the conspiracy theories that has been floated around in the wake of UFC 151's cancellation is that Chael Sonnen knew about Dan Henderson's injury ahead of time, preparing him to step in against Jon Jones when Henderson ultimately had to pull out of the event.

The thought is that his connection to Team Quest made him aware of the situation, and because of that Jones' camp didn't trust that Sonnen was only getting eight day's notice like they were. On Monday, Henderson himself disagreed with that sentiment, and said Sonnen didn't have advance knowledge of his injury.

"Chael didn't know anything about it," Henderson said in an interview with a Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. "He had definitely not been training at all. My guys told me that Greg Jackson said in an interview that Chael was down training with me and getting ready for the fight and knew I was hurt. It was nothing like that at all.. He wasn't even down here. I asked him if he wanted to come down and help me train a couple months ago, but he didn't come down."

Given what his thoughts on the series of events are, he also doesn't understand why Jones wouldn't take the fight with Sonnen to save UFC 151. He also thinks the criticism Jones has faced in the wake of that decision has been fair.

"Ultimately it was his decision not to take a fight with Chael, [and] I don't think it's unfair that he's been blasted like that," Henderson said. "All I know is, that's not the decision I would've made. Obviously he has his own reasons. I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't take a fight like that. Other than being injured, if I'm healthy, in shape and ready to fight that day, it doesn't matter who they want me to fight. I'll fight, especially if I'm champ."

"With Chael, [he] hadn't trained in 6-7 weeks. Chael might've done OK in the first round, maybe take Jon Jones down and then probably run out of gas pretty quickly... I didn't think it was the smartest move at all for Chael to step up. Being out of shape, for Chael to take Jon Jones down would require probably a little more energy than to bounce around the cage and exchange punches with him. So I think he definitely would've needed a little bit more gas than sitting on the couch for six weeks would give him."

Penick's Analysis: It's impossible for Henderson to say definitively that Sonnen had no knowledge of his injury. He may not have told him personally, but that doesn't mean Sonnen couldn't have been informed by someone in Henderson's camp that knew of the issue. I'm not saying that's how things played out, of course, but it's not unreasonable for people to think that Sonnen could have known about the injury ahead of time before stepping up for the replacement fight. It's also entirely possible he had no knowledge of it whatsoever, but regardless, that's not something Henderson can say with certainty just because he himself wasn't the informant.

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