Resurrecting UFC 151 - Imagine Jon Jones Facing Chris Weidman For LHW Title

With Dan Henderson injured, and UFC 151 being cancelled, we are left waiting for the opportunity to see Jon Jones in action once more. Getting a credible top 10 opponent to make the cut to 205 pounds and challenge for the title against the scariest person in combat sports on this kind of short turnaround time would be incredibly difficult and it was exactly that. Accordingly, the UFC brass made the decision to pull the plug. But what if we could get the UFC bosses to reconsider?

I believe that the matchmakers should look down to the middleweight division and get the best unscheduled fighter at that weight to come up for a "Hey, you never know" title shot and that this would be a better save than a cancellation.

And that fighter would be Chris Weidman. Not Chael Sonnen, coming off a very clear KO loss. Chris Weidman, winner of nine straight bouts, is the best option. He himself even agrees with this.

Here's a nugget for you: @chrisweidmanufc offered to fight Jon Jones. story coming shortly.

— Mark La Monica (@LaMonicaMark) August 23, 2012

"Joe Silva was like 'Wow, he wants to take the fight, I didn't even think of that,'" Weidman said. "We said we're all in. We just have to wait for [Ray] Longo to land, but we're all in. Just put us in the mix. Who knows if it ever got back to Jon Jones though. But UFC knew." Source: La Monica's Newsday article.

Get this man a fight with Jon Jones! Don't cancel UFC 151! Allow me to be unnecessarily excited about the prospect of Weidman pulling off a massive KO or beastly submission! Let the name of Hofstra and Long Island mean something other than Wayne Chrebet and the place that invented an unnecessarily complicated iced tea recipe!

After the jump, more thinking about Weidman's chances and video of Chris Weidman giving Andre Galvao, the current king of submission grappling, all kinds of trouble way back in 2009 at the ADCCs.

This might not be as crazy as I initially thought. Weidman is actually a much better collegiate wrestler than Jones (although they have different styles within MMA). He has some oomph in his fists and elbows and he is currently sitting on his butt firing verbal shots at Anderson Silva, Vitor Belfort and/or any other elite middleweight. Given how he was walking around at a chubby 217 before the Maia fight, the size disparity would not be much larger than that of Hendo/Jones.

Throw in Weidman's short notice, but dominant match against Demian Maia and his complete destruction of Mark Munoz and I think we have the level best title challenger possible in this short time frame. Weidman would do everything humanly possible to win and with his submission grappling as good as it is, he could legitimately catch Jones in a bad moment in a way that the other 205'ers cannot. Chael Sonnen would try to feed Jones a steady diet of takedowns and some light punches while he struggles to keep Jones down.

Now for the ADCC 2009 video.

Keep in mind that Weidman at this point only had a year and change of submission grappling training over at Matt Serra's camp. And he nearly gets tromped in the opening moments of the match because of that inexperience. However, he recovers, gets out and then proceeds to get a brabo choke set on Andre flippin' Galvao. Unfortunately for Chris, he doesn't finish and Andre manages to match the frenetic pace enough to utilize his superior skill and win a points victory.

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