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UFC 151 cancelled, future fight card changes, turned down title shots, and more

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ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 21: Jon Jones celebrates defeating Rashad Evans by unanimous decision in their light heavyweight title bout for UFC 145 at Philips Arena on April 21, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

What a wild and wacky world the fight game is, huh?

There were rumblings on Wednesday night (Aug. 22, 2012) that big news was about to hit the wire that would cause a major shake up to an upcoming event. Word around the water cooler was that Dan Henderson was injured and Jon Jones would be getting a new opponent for the main event of UFC 151.

The truth was far worse.

The UFC sent word out that it would hold a special conference call to make a major announcement on Aug. 23. That major announcement turned out to be the complete cancellation of the planed UFC 151 pay-per-view on Sept. 1 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Henderson was, in fact, injured, but Jones was not accepting a new opponent.

Actually, he turned one down.

Indeed, "Bones" refused to fight Chael Sonnen, who offered to step up to the plate. We later learned Anderson Silva also offered his services in order to save the show, although he wasn't offering to fight Jones.

This led to Jones getting booked for the main event of UFC 152 against Lyoto Machida, the number one contender to his title. Except "The Dragon" turned it down, revealing later that he didn't feel three weeks was enough time to prepare for a fight of such magnitude. That turned out to be the case for Mauricio Rua, as well, as we also learned he turned down the fight right after Machida.

The only guy the UFC could find to accept the fight was Vitor Belfort, who was given a pat on the back and a smile for stepping up to the plate on short notice. That forced a few changes to the UFC 153 card. Hell, with UFC 151 cancelled, a bevy of upcoming cards saw changes.

It's been a wild few days, and it's understandable if you've missed out on a few of the breaking news stories, opinion pieces, analysis, quotes, notes and videos. We've got you covered with links to it all after the jump.

There you have it, Maniacs. Insanity.

For all the latest and greatest news and notes on UFC 151 click here. For UFC 152 click here and for UFC 153 click here.

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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