Former former light heavyweight and middleweight contender-turned-analyst, Chael Sonnen has made a staggering claim about the UFC’s heavyweight division led by Jon Jones. The Oregonian has labelled the entire weight class as the “biggest bunch of cowards”.
Sonnen, who has competed as high as the light heavyweight limit during his Octagon run, even tried for gold but suffered a first-round knockout loss against current heavyweight pacesetter Jon Jones.
Sonnen appears to have retained a distinct rivalry with Jones since that showdown. He has been a vocal critic of the American in the ongoing dispute between Jones and interim champion Tom Aspinall.
Offering his support for the Briton, Sonnen has, in recent weeks, questioned the game plan of the polarizing Jones — as he remains steadfast about not fighting. And his apparent lack of interest in unifying the crowns against the dangerous Aspinall.
Sonnen shows support for Aspinall
And this week, he has once more gone to bat for Aspinall — with a sharp attack aimed at the collective of heavyweights under the banner of the UFC.
Failing to secure a showdown with Jones as of yet, Aspinall has maintained his interest in returning to action as early as later this year, but ultimately to no avail.
As far as Sonnen is concerned, too, Aspinall may be onto a losing game regardless. Besides, his opinion of the whole division in comparison to its more competitive counterparts seems to have regressed.
“I mean, the heavyweights are the biggest bunch of cowards that we’ve got,” Sonnen said on his podcast this week.
“We’ve got a sport that’s full of tough guys. But if you were to condense them down, like who is truly the biggest wimp, it would have to be the heavyweights,” he argued.
“Like you don’t really have a choice, you don’t have an interim champion in your division because your division is strong; you don’t have an unwilling champion heading up your division because your division is courageous,” Sonnen added, noting, “You don’t have two belt holders in a division that can’t agree on a date where they’re going to come, roll their sleeves up and figure this out.”
Earlier this week, Sonnen’s Good Guy/Bad Guy co-host, and UFC Hall of Famer, Daniel Cormier, took a similar stance to Sonnen, questioning what Jones was actually trying to achieve.
Cormier blasts Jones for heavyweight hold-up
Considered the greatest fighter of all-time since his Octagon pomp, Jones’ stature in that regard has been called into severe question by fellow ex-two-weight kingpin, Cormier.
Sharing a fierce rivalry with Jones spanning two grudge fights in the last decade, Cormier is taking his stance on Jones’ inactivity to the extreme.
Claiming that Jones thinks of himself as the best to ever strap on gloves, DC asked why Jones is not fighting Aspinall next. The Lafayette star makes quite the pertinent point.
“Nobody gets out of this thing clean. … Jones has gotten through this thing clean longer than most people could ever imagine getting through this thing clean,” Cormier said on his channel.
“But at the end of the day, there’s another young, up-and-coming guy that deserves — Tom deserves an opportunity to fight the greatest. If you’re the greatest, you go fight him. That’s how it works,” DC added.
