Chael Sonnen was left dumbfounded by Jon Jones’s UFC 300 confession.
During an interview with Submission Radio, the reigning heavyweight world champion revealed that he was offered the opportunity to headline the promotion’s landmark event on April 13. However, ‘Bones’ admitted to turning down the offer, noting that he’s still recovering from a torn pectoral muscle he suffered while training late last year.
Sonnen — who famously talked his way into a title fight with Jon Jones in 2013 — was baffled by the admission and believes that it was nothing more than ‘Bones’ trying to get his name back in the headlines while he continues to sit on the sidelines.
“I would just have absolutely no idea what goes through that guy’s head,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Like, there’s a level of stupid that’s really hard to achieve, right? I mean, it’s hard. And in fairness, I wouldn’t know.
“When would it be OK for Jon to claim that he was offered a main event at UFC 300? When would that be okay to claim? When he wasn’t. If he was not offered that, if he’s working, if that’s a hustle to get a headline, he did a great job. You have a heavyweight champion of the world who is amongst the best to have ever done it, in any weight class. Heavyweight sucks, so it’s not like a compliment to say, ‘He’s the best heavyweight ever.’ No, man, I’m talking about a real compliment to Jon — just one of the best to ever do it, period. But you have to understand, if no one’s talking about you, then you’re not. It’s not questionable or a maybe — if the world’s not talking about you, you’re not.
“The reigning, sitting heavyweight champion of the world can’t get a headline,” Sonnen continued. “So if he made this up, if this is a lie about 300, great job. First time you’ve ever done a great job. Great job. But because it would be the first time, because that’s off-brand, I don’t think it’s what happened. I think he got a phone call. So now he comes out and he outs the organization. He just outs the organization, ‘Hey man, these guys don’t have a main event.’
“Daniel Cormier called him a bad employee a couple weeks ago. Very low hanging fruit. That’s not a tremendous insult. Yeah, I mean, my God — what he did here, if that call really happened, is so damaging. And it’s not self serving, by the way. You want to go into business by yourself? Go ahead. There’s a time and a place, right? You want to become the next Stone Cold Steve Austin, you might have to go off script, but where was the payoff for Jon? What is the payoff for Jon that they called him and offered him a fight?”
The UFC 300 headliner has been the subject of many a headline as rumors continue to swirl about the promotion’s struggle to deliver something fans will be happy with. Recently, MMA Hour host Ariel Helwani claimed that a welterweight title fight between Leon Edwards and Khamzat Chimaev was the UFC’s “top choice” but ‘Borz’ quickly debunked the rumors.
A middleweight showdown between reigning champion Dricus Du Plessis and two-time titleholder Israel Adesanya is also in the cards, though it remains to be seen if ‘Stillknocks’ will be good to go after his five-round war with Sean Strickland less than a month to go.
UFC Fans are Gowing Increasingly Frustrated with Jon Jones
Jon Jones has been a point of contention for many MMA fans after it was revealed that he would not return to take on interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
The interim belt was established at UFC 295 after Jones — who was scheduled to headline the event opposite heavyweight GOAT Stipe Miocic — bowed out due to injury. Aspinall scored a 69-second KO against Sergei Pavlovich and immediately called out Jon Jones, dubbing their unification clash his “dream fight.” Unfortunately, ‘Bones’ insisted that he would still pursue his fight with Miocic upon his return, leaving Aspinall and the heavyweight division with an uncertain future.
“He didn’t say anything that could be helpful,” Sonnen said of Jones. “He only said one detail that could harm the company. They don’t have a main event and they’re scrambling, which means any of you that are getting an alike phone call, negotiate hard, they need you. That is what the heavyweight champion just told the rest of the roster.
“It’s one of these very bizarre situations where you have a guy so hungry for attention that he just came out and damaged the company, and he didn’t mean to — he’s stupid. But the irony of it is, guys like me … I’d like to give them the attention. Now I might be giving him the business and I might not be what you would call his [friend], but I do like to cover Jon, I do like when there’s some news out there. So if he’s starved for attention and he needs it and he craves it so bad, if the bottles coming to an end, if it’s one of these situations, we’ll give it to him.
“But for right now to come out with nothing monetizable, no payoff, no receipt, no reward, no anything, and advertise that your boss does not have the main event that he’s advertised to the world that he has? It’s a scumbag move, man,” Sonnen continued. “It’s a scumbag move. And Dana and Hunter [Campbell] and Mick [Maynard] and Sean [Shelby], they shouldn’t have to call you and say, ‘Hey man, this is just between us’. They shouldn’t have to say it every time. If you’ve been here, then you know that’s the deal. If you’re our champion, we should be able to count on you. Daniel Cormier’s right — that is a bad employee” (h/t MMA Fighting).