NEWARK — Chael Sonnen brought the fight to Jon Jones, just like he promised.
But on a weird night here in Newark, Sonnen went down in defeat early to a much more dominant champion.
Jones was able to take Sonnen down within the first five seconds of the fight, and though Sonnen would work his way back to his fight after that takedown and a second that followed, he wasn’t able to work his way off the canvas near the end of the round when Jones smothered him with nasty elbows and punches for the TKO win.
So what did we learn?
We learned that Jones will be out of action for quite some time. He suffered a toe injury at some point—either during the fight or the post-fight celebration—that was one of the more gruesome foot-related injuries that I can remember.
When I say this thing was gross, I’m talking next-level revolting stuff. It looked like the toe needed to be reattached through surgery, but yet, I’m sitting here at the post-fight press conference watching his family file through the door, which means he’s putting off a trip to the hospital until we’re done tonight.
Jones is a real champion and a professional. That toe, though, was gross. I’m queasy just thinking about it.
We learned that Chael Sonnen is likely done fighting. I told all of you going into this fight that Sonnen was likely done if he lost. A lot of you hated me for saying it, but now you see that it’s true. Sonnen told Joe Rogan that he wasn’t going to stick around if there wasn’t a path to a title shot, and he believed this was his last opportunity.
You may see Sonnen in the cage again some day. It just isn’t going to happen any time soon.
We learned that Jones can be dominant when expected. Jones isn’t a champion who fights down to the level of his opponents. He doesn’t eke out decisions. When he’s expected to destroy his opponents, he does so. We didn’t learn much about his skills, but we did learn that he’s not the kind of fighter comfortable with the idea of merely winning. He wanted to prove his dominance, and he did so.
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