Chael Sonnen is not pleased with the way Jon Jones has handled himself after getting banned from Jackson Wink MMA following his most recent arrest.
Jones’ long-time coach, Mike Winkeljohn, revealed earlier this week that the former UFC light heavyweight champion has been kicked out of the gym until he gets his drinking under control. The decision comes less than one month after Jones was arrested in Las Vegas and booked on misdemeanor battery domestic violence, as well as injuring and tampering with a vehicle.
As expected, Jones did not agree with Winkeljohn’s decision to take him out of the gym. Jones took to social media after a phone call with his long-time coach to make his disappointment known.
“Had a heartbreaking conversation over the phone with one of my longtime coaches last night, really hurts to lose the support of someone I respect so much,” Jones wrote on Wednesday in a since-deleted tweet. “[A] sincere thank you to the rest of the coaches for staying in the fight with me. Our journey continues …”
Given his issues outside of the cage everything Jones does nowadays seems to be thrown under a microscope and rightfully so. Jones has never had the best of luck with social media and filtering things he maybe shouldn’t say, but this doesn’t seem like one of those times. Jones’ response to Winkeljohn’s ban seemed sincere and that is why Sonnen is disgusted by the reaction.
“Jon put a tweet on this and he deleted it and it was just disgusting,” said Sonnen on his YouTube channel (ht sportskeeda). “The tweet was disgusting and he said, ‘it hurts really bad to have one of my coaches who I respect so much turn away from me, for the rest of the coaches going for that fight with me, we continue,’ and then he deleted it. The reason that tweet is disgusting is he used the word team. You have the most selfish guy in sport using the word team when convenient.”
Jones, who is widely considered one of the best MMA fighters of all time, simply can’t get out of his own way when it comes to staying out of trouble and continuing his fighting career. The former UFC champion has sworn off alcohol after his most recent arrest, but we’ll have to wait and see if Jones actually starts to live that life. Once he proves it there’s a real good chance Winkeljohn lifts the ban and Jones can start regaining the respect of those closest to him.