Heading into UFC 153, the news on everyone’s lips was that Jon Jones had finally seemed to come around to the idea of fighting Chael Sonnen. Now, it appears that fight will become a certainty.
The light heavyweight champion and his loud-mouthed nemesis will spend several weeks together coaching opposing teams on the long-running reality program, The Ultimate Fighter, according to a report from Lance Pugmire of LATimes.com.
After the show’s filming has concluded, the duo will square off at an unnamed event on April 27, 2013.
This is great news for The Ultimate Fighter, as ratings hit a new low with last week’s episode. Can you imagine the trash talk that Chael Sonnen will deliver over the course of a 12-week television program?
The 17th season of the show will begin filming later this month and will air beginning in January. It is notable that TUF has not started airing a season of the show in January since the inaugural season back in 2005.
To those living under a rock, the beef between Jones and Sonnen began in late August, when Sonnen’s Team Quest teammate Dan Henderson was forced out of a scheduled fight with the champion. Sonnen attempted to step in on short notice, but Jones refused to fight the former middleweight with only one week to prepare a game plan.
The move drew the ire of UFC President Dana White, who was forced to cancel UFC 151 due to the absence of a PPV-worthy main event.
In declining the replacement bout, Jones explained that he wasn’t fully comfortable risking the belt against the 35-year-old skilled wrestler with a relentless, attacking style that nearly allowed him to upset middleweight champion Anderson Silva in 2010.
How deep will Sonnen get under the skin of Jonny Bones while filming the show? Will this be the jolt that brings The Ultimate Fighter‘s ratings back to life?
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