Jon Jones Will Have Keen Eyes on Anaheim This Weekend… But He’s Already Been Distracted by Chael Sonnen’s Unflattering Words About the UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion’s Future…
Jon Jones is the most successful light-heavyweight champion of all time. The Jackson-Wink fighter is in his fourth spell as champion, and at the moment could be considered the biggest active star in MMA – with Khabib Nurmagamedov probably his biggest rival for that title.
However, all is not well in his world as his reaction to Chael Sonnen’s analysis of his future showed. Jones reacted with fury when Sonnen spoke about him on his podcast and discussed how Father Time could be sneaking up on one of the best fighters in the world.
So the pair went back and forth on Twitter in an entertaining exchange. Check it out below.
Winding Down
Sonnen and Jones don’t particularly like each other. ‘The American Gangster’ spoke at length on his podcast about Jones’s future and how he doesn’t think the 205lb champion is really thinking about the future. He also believes that there’s a real chance that Israel Adesanya usurps him as the organization’s biggest active star. Sonnen said:
“I don’t think he realizes how quick that clock is winding down. He will not be the world champion at 35 years old. He absolutely will not be. He likely will not even be the main event or co-main event by 36 years old. By 37 years old, he will be fighting for his place in the sport. That’s just the way it goes.”
“You now have Israel Adesanya, just by example, coming up. Israel Adesanya is going to be the one that grabs the torch and moves that organization forward, for sure. He will become the biggest star and the talk will quickly be that he is the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Jones is getting replaced. Over time he’s going to have to move weight class if he wants to be remembered. He needs to expand, he needs to show on some level that he can go out there and compete with Cormier clean.”
Bogus
Jones really doesn’t like getting criticised in any way. For a man who has been so successful inside the octagon, he’s a very sensitive soul. He went in hard on Sonnen, furiously targeting his lack of titles and losing record against the very best fighters out there. ‘Bones’ wrote:
“I beat you in less than two minutes, obviously you’re going to have bogus things to say. I can see you in a barbershop at 75 talking about what it takes to be a champion & telling your made up Jon Jones stories, thanks for sharing your amazing imagination.”
“Got beat by a bunch of the best and somehow that makes you credible.”
Last Word
Sonnen typically got the last word in. He made reference to the criminal aspects of Jones’s past by saying that he’d basically end up in prison in the future. Considering he’s been convicted of a hit-and-run, drug use and other offences, it’s probably not that bad a guess. He said:
-We’ll BOTH be tellin’ stories about our past glories in a barber-shop when we’re 75
But
You’ll be tellin’ yours in a
PRISON Barber-Shop, I’m guessin’
It’s corny but we like it.
