Jon Jones is no stranger to controversy, and Chael Sonnen is no stranger to trash talk. In a savage rant uploaded to YouTube, the retired UFC legend went for the jugular in his criticism of Jon Jones’ attempt to return to Dana White’s (and the UFC’s) good graces.
Jon Jones has spent the better part of the year since his public pay spat with Dana White putting on weight. The former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion vacated the title he held for two years and declared his intention to move up to heavyweight. His UFC career was far from uneventful, marked by cocaine and steroid use, DUI charges, and a hit-and-run conviction in which he injured a pregnant woman.
UFC Legend Chael Sonnen’s Goes SAVAGE With “Best Case” Scenario Take For Jon Jones!
His public argument with UFC president Dana White was primarily concerned with the pay he felt he deserved, with Jones chasing “Deontay Wilder money” to fight then-Heavyweight contender Francis Ngannou.
However, according to uncle Chael Sonnen, this public approach against Dana White, a man Sonnen describes as a public negotiations “counter-puncher” who “wins every single fight” was far from the best move. Jones’ absence from the UFC and his “I’ll call you when I’m ready” approach clearly failed to endear him to Dana White. As a result, Sonnen describes the “best case scenario” for Jones as one where he is third in line to contend for the heavyweight title. The two-time Light Heavyweight champ gets to “go sit and lift weights for another year”.
As far as contenders for Ngannou’s newly acquired title go, Sonnen views Derrick Lewis and Stipe Miocic as obvious frontrunners. Miocic was the champion who Francis Ngannou knocked out in the second round of their second bout to claim the strap, while Derrick Lewis seems to be, for all intents and purposes, an unstoppable fighter fuelled by will and determination. Whoever wins Ngannou v Lewis will likely fight Stipe, and the winner of that fight would fight Jon Jones – in a best case scenario.
This scenario, according to Chael Sonnen, requires the UFC to “suspend reality far enough to imagine that Jon Jones without doing something got better at it than his cohorts, who are younger, in less lawsuits, and have less cocaine convictions, who never stopped.”
Sonnen went on to claim “that’ s an amazing leap but it’s one we’re willing to take. We give every single fighter who has removed himself and not shown us a deficit […] the same respect which is the benefit of the doubt.”
However this plays out, it’s clear that Dana White remains the undisputed champion of public negotiations, and Jon Jones may have to wait longer than he wants for the title shot he so clearly craves.
What do you think? Will Jon Jones ever return to the UFC, and if so does he have what it takes to become a champion for the third time? Or does he need to make way for more active fighters who have actively pursued the heavyweight title?
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