UFC legend Chael Sonnen could not disagree more with a recent opinion Daniel Cormier shared about the heavyweight title picture.
The main throne is currently occupied by Jon Jones, who collected the then-vacant belt with a submission of Ciryl Gane in his divisional debut last March. Next to him, however, sits an interim champ in the form of Tom Aspinall.
The Manchester, England, native captured that gold after Jones’ scheduled defense against Stipe Miocic last November was canceled due to an injury. With Aspinall capitalizing by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich, many initially expected Jones to meet the Brit in a unification showdown upon his return from the sidelines.
But both the Rochester native and the UFC have other plans. While Aspinall gears up to defend his interim strap against Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 on July 27, Jones is expected to welcome Miocic back to the cage in November.
That situation has left many in the community — fighters, fans, and pundits — less than pleased, with plenty expressing a lack of interest in the Miocic fight and disdain at the champ’s dismissal of his interim counterpart.
According to Cormier, a former heavyweight titleholder himself, those voices will only get louder should Aspinall run through Blaydes in Manchester, so much so that the UFC could be forced into a change.
Sonnen To Cormier: ‘Did You Hurt Your Head? Fall Off A Ladder?’
During a video recently uploaded to his YouTube channel, Sonnen reacted to Cormier’s take with utter bemusement.
“The Bad Guy” insisted that no manner of victory for Aspinall could outdo his title-winning performance against Pavlovich last November. And seeing that such a display on that occasion did little to budge Jones and the UFC from their plans, Sonnen laughed off the suggestion a win over Blaydes could.
“Is he (Cormier) drunk? Did he hurt his head? Did he fall off a ladder or something like this? Is he working on a comedy routine? I ask because he thinks that Tom Aspinall, with a proper victory, could take Stipe’s fight against Jon Jones away,” Sonnen said. “He can’t be serious, right?! He said with a proper performance, gotta be an absolute drubbing…Aspinall’s gotta go out there in front of his people and whip Curtis Blaydes, and there could be such an uprising by you, the crowd, that UFC would have no choice but to give Tom the fight.
“There’s no way he believes that, right? Sometimes you say things and it’s on accident. In a normal situation you’d cut, edit that out, give me another shot. But, you’re live. And you look back and go, ‘That’s not at all what I meant.’ I’m assuming that’s what happened here,” Sonnen continued. “There’s nothing that can be done to Curtis Blaydes that would be worse than what happened to Sergei. And there is no amount of eyes on this match that is going to have the focus and the interest, thus making a victory potentially by Tom more incredible. To act as though that could interfere with a contractual agreement on a fight…what in the blue hell are you talking about?!”
Nevertheless, Aspinall will hope to give Cormier’s theory the chance to play out by delivering a devastatingly dominant performance in his rematch against Blaydes later this month on home soil.
The interim heavyweight title will be contested in the first of two championship fights at UFC 304, with Leon Edwards subsequently defending his welterweight belt against Belal Muhammad in the main event.
Two belts are on the line in Manchester
Tickets for #UFC304 are available to the general public on Friday at 10amBST/2amPT
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