Perhaps we’ll get that Jon Jones–Chael Sonnen fight after all.
As any mixed martial arts fan who hasn’t been living under a rock the past few months could tell you, Jones, the UFC light heavyweight champion, refused Sonnen as a short-notice replacement opponent at UFC 151 after his scheduled challenger, Dan Henderson, dropped out due to a knee injury.
In the aftermath of Jones’ decision, UFC president Dana White pulled the plug on the Sept. 1 event, the first fight-card cancelation in Zuffa history.
But on Thursday night, Jones sent out a hint on Twitter that he’s coming around on the notion of fighting the mouthy former middleweight.
“The more I realize how bad the fans want me to fight Sonnen the more I am beginning to disregard whether he deserves it or not,” Jones tweeted out to his nearly 483,000 followers.
While Sonnen would no doubt jump at such an opportunity, much still stands in the way of such a fight, from the fact the Sonnen has his return to light heavyweight already booked at UFC 155 against Forrest Griffin on Dec. 29, to Jones’ arm injury, suffered in his Sept. 22 win over Vitor Belfort.
But the tweet indicates that Jones, if nothing else, is now open to a match with Sonnen, one which would no doubt move a whole lot more than the reported 450,000 buys UFC 152 is currently estimated as selling.
Even if Jones still has some hangups. He followed up his Sonnen tweet with another less than 10 minutes later.
“A part of me wants to do it for the fans the other part of me feels as if it delegitimizes the importance of [a] championship,” Jones tweeted.
Sonnen, of course, couldn’t resist responding via Twitter. Sonnen tweeted (Caps are his): “You don’t GIVE. I TAKE. Remembah [sic] that, Bonesie-Boy.”