A good portion of mixed martial arts (MMA) fans speculated the recently-announced match-up featuring Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones vs. former middleweight number one contender Chael Sonnen was a knee-jerk reaction to poor ratings for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) franchise.
WRONG!
Sorry, but those fans don't know what the [expletive] they're talking about. Neither does the Internet. That's according to UFC President Dana White, who tells Yahoo! Sports he has all the answers and the promotion knows what it's doing when it comes to matchmaking.
His words, not mine.
"This wasn't where I was going. But when this happened and Jones was going to be out for so long, it made sense. I understand completely [about Sonnen not having won a fight at light heavyweight], but it's a fight people want to see. That's what the word is, that TUF needs the help? People love to speculate and talk [expletive], but the truth of it is, they don't know what the [expletive] they're talking about. I have all the answers. The Internet does not. We built this company and we know what we're doing. That had nothing to do with it."
"Jones vs. Sonnen" has nothing to do with putrid TUF ratings. But I'm sure White won't mind the nice little boost they'll get when "Bones" and "The American Gangster" face off as coaches on season 17, which will culminate in a pay-per-view (PPV) title fight on April 27 at a location to be named.
In fact, we may not need to speculate any longer.
That's because White and his two top dogs at 205 pounds are going to break it all down for the Internet a little later today during the "Jones vs. Sonnen" media conference call. Make sure you head over to this post at 4 p.m. ET sharp to catch Hemmi's live play-by-play.
Get some answers from the man who has them all.