Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones may not have faced one another in the Octagon since 2013, but their ongoing feud shows no signs of slowing down. Just as Sonnen retired from competition and turned his motormouth to MMA analysis, Jon Jones has remained in the spotlight, occasionally for the wrong reasons. Chael Sonnen took to his YouTube channel to point out that Jon Jones “isn’t smart enough” to fully comprehend his constant barrage of criticism for the former light heavyweight champion.
“You gotta understand, Jon’s no different than any other athlete. You’ve got your supporters and you’ve got your haters. Now, a guy that’s on an undercard doesn’t have either. He evokes absolutely no emotion from the crowd.
Chael Sonnen: Jon Jones “Isn’t Smart Enough” To Understand Criticism
They don’t care if he wins, they don’t care if he loses, they don’t care if he fights tonight. When you’re a main eventer like Jon, you evoke a very strong emotion. Some of it is of tremendous support and some of it is tremendous, ‘I really want see you get beat.’
Either way, Jon isn’t smart enough to understand. I might be leading the charge against Jon Jones, I might, I might be the leader of that band, but that band has a lot of members, and we’re all doing the same thing. Jon can’t seem to figure it out.”
Much of the criticism levelled against Jon Jones comes either from Jones’ penchant for PED use or his controversial activities outside the Octagon. Most recently, on the same night as Jones was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, he was arrested on domestic violence charges. That wasn’t Jones’ first brush with the law, either, as he was stripped of his UFC title after a hit-and-run conviction in which Jones crashed into a vehicle containing a pregnant woman and fled the scene.
Curiously, Chael Sonnen veered from his usual course of berating Jones to describe how excited he is for Jones’ long-awaited move up to the heavyweight division.
“This Jon Jones experiment hasn’t fallen deaf on me yet. I am still very into this. If this was any other athlete than Jon Jones, and you had any one of three clues, I would tell you he’s going to lose. For example, he hasn’t fought in two years, whoever that person is, it’s not going to be a good night, history would back me up on that. He’s changing weight classes, he’s going to a weight class that adds 60 pounds to anything he’s ever done before.”
If you tell me that an athlete is going to participate, who is now at a new gym in a completely different state than he resides, I’m going to tell you the outcome isn’t going to be wonderful. Jon has all of those things stacked up against him, but the problem is he’s Jon Jones. He’s done a lot of things that nobody else can do.”
Do you agree with Chael Sonnen? Let us know in the comments.
