Jon Jones (Jon Jones twitter)
Chael Sonnen picks the perfect fight for Jon Jones when he makes his heavyweight debut
Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, widely regarded as one of the best fighters in the UFC, has not competed in the octagon for more than three years. In his most recent bout, against Dominick Reyes in February 2020, ‘Bones’ was victorious by unanimous decision after a grueling contest. Later that year, Jones renounced his title following contract disputes with the UFC.
The contract crisis between Jones and the UFC appears to have been resolved, and ‘Bones’ has hinted at an imminent fight announcement. Chael Sonnen believes that the probable UFC heavyweight championship bout between Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones is the most exciting event in mixed martial arts at the moment.
The two-time UFC middleweight title contender discussed the situation of the UFC’s heavyweight division and the magnitude of a potential battle between Ngannou and Jones on his YouTube channel:
“Jon Jones vs. Francis, I think, is the biggest fight you can put on in our industry. It’s also going to be the first fight where [they] have four years of inactivity between the two of them. It’s a very peculiar situation.”
Sonnen added: “We’ve heard the rumor that Jones and Stipe were going to fight for an interim championship. We’ve heard a rumor that Jones and Curtis were going to fight, but that rumor went right away, but it happened, and attached to that fight was going to be an interim championship. If that were true, that would protect Francis, he’s only got so much time to get his contract worked out and his knee healed up. I’m just sharing with you that if he comes back and is still undisputed champion, he’s in a pretty good spot, and in fact it would be a title fight because he’s the one bringing the title. But if he gets stripped, all bets are off.”
According to the most recent rumors, the UFC is trying to schedule a heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou. “The Predator” will be ready to go by the end of March which was confirmed by his coach earlier last week. If that matchup fails to come to fruition, Curtis Blaydes has also confirmed that he will be available to compete as a backup.
In the wake of these latest developments from the heavyweight division, Georges St-Pierre has given his two cents on what he expects from Jon Jones when he makes his heavyweight debut.
Speaking in a recent media scrum [via/ MMA Fighting], Pierre expects nothing but the best from “arguably the best fighter of all-time”:
“I’ve seen it on the red carpet when I got inducted into the [UFC] Hall of Fame. I took a picture and I put my arm around him, I was like, ‘Man, he’s solid like a rock.’ He’s huge. Jon Jones, he’s solid like a rock, he looked huge.”
“I’m a fan of Jon Jones, I like to see him fight. I can’t wait to see him come back. A lot of people are like, ‘Yeah, he was out for a long time.’ He was out for a long time, but he’s Jon Jones, you know what I mean? Don’t forget that he’s Jon Jones. He’s arguably the best fighter of all-time too. He can make a comeback and I think he’s going to be successful when he does.”
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