Jon Jones is exposed. Not in the way you might think, though.
Feuding with Chael Sonnen is like a war of attrition. Not only are you in for the long haul, but you risk looking terrible coming out of it.
Sonnen is undoubtedly the best trash-talker in the game, and more than anything else, the Oregon-native knows how to sell a fight with little more than pointed words. Of course, it also helps that he’s one of the most dominant mixed martial artists in the game today.
Jon Jones is no slouch when it comes to the Octagon either, but outside of a fight?
He’s hopeless.
That much was made apparent today, as both fighters got into a Twitter feud, exchanging insults and witty banter. In the end, Sonnen got the better of Jones, highlighting the champion’s past troubles with drinking and driving:
Boardingplane toOregon now, home of your corporate wage masters. Next time you are in town, knock on my door. Don’t drive. @johnnybones
— chael sonnen (@sonnench) August 15, 2012
Despite the fact that Jones started the exchange, Sonnen finished it in his usual bombastic fashion, showing once again that you don’t get into a verbal fight with a talker of his caliber.
But most importantly, the entire exchange was extremely entertaining. Not only did it give both fighters a chance to embrace their inner heel, but it lays the groundwork for a grudge match.
Even though Sonnen’s lost twice to Anderson Silva, the fact still remains that he’s one of the most interesting fighters in the UFC. Outside of Rashad Evans, practically no one else can spin words around an opponent as scathingly as Sonnen can.
Should Sonnen get past Griffin in impressive fashion, the fast track to a title shot is wide open. Considering that he’s arguably a bigger PPV star that Jones, Sonnen would bring a lot of buyers to a well-promoted fight card.
Unfortunately, Jones showed a poor hand with his last tweet, grasping at straws with a weakly-worded comment to protect his image:
For everyone who thinks I’m “falling into chaels game” I know exactly what I’m doing.. #AreYouNotEntertained
— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) August 15, 2012
Just like that, a great deal of the heat is taken out of the fire. Jon Jones “knows” what he’s doing, and that’s nothing more than entertaining MMA fans through social media.
But that’s not what we want to hear.
No, we want to hear Jones talk about how foolish Chael is for disrespecting him, why an overconfident middleweight refugee has no right to challenge the 205-pound champion after two losses to Anderson Silva, and how much he can’t wait to punch Sonnen’s teeth in.
Instead, Jones has hinted that he’s just mugging for the camera, with no real bad intent behind his words. No professional wrestler would break kayfabe as badly as “Bones” just did.
Even worse, Jones deleted his tweets and briefly blocked his Twitter page to non-followers, showing that his newest enemy may just have rattled him a bit more than he’s letting on. Sonnen takes the first round of this feud, 1-0.
[McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist. His work has appeared in EGM, GamePro, 1UP, Macworld, & PC World. Follow him on Twitter for more fight talk.]
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