UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones might not have been great after four years of no in-ring action but he managed to get himself into the right frame of mind to defeat Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. At least, that’s what former UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen believes.
Speaking to Daniel Cormier on the Good Guy/Bad Guy podcast, Sonnen compared Jones’ inactivity to Michael Chandler, who also fought at UFc 309. While both fighters were 37 at the time, Chandler had been out of commission for two years compared to Jones‘ one 2-minute fight in four years and yet Chandler looked slower and rustier than the champion.
Sonnen then explained that this was not a a ‘great’ Jones that faced Miocic and said,
“Logically, he couldn’t be. He spent his entire camp grappling and doing Jiu Jitsu, to a point where he put Gabriel Stevenson, an Olympic champion wrestler in his corner, along with Gordon Ryan. And I only share for you (because in the fight), he didn’t do any of it. I mean, he might have touched the ground for a moment but he was looking to put a hole through Stipe’s head through his elbow over something Stipe allegedly said about his kids, which he did not actually say.”
But what made Jones special was his frame of mind. Having convinced himself that Miocic talked about his kids, Jones got himself into his old cold self, and in the end that is what mattered. Breaking down the fight further, v claimed that Jones simply had too many tools at his disposal.
“For goodness sake, he turned his back. It’s a spinning kick. You can’t even see your opponent. Stipe brings up a knee, drops an elbow, provides about 4 inches of room for that foot to go through… he got it through the gap… and ended the fight. What would it be like if he actually lived the lifestyle, DC?”
But as good as Jones is, his legacy still remains in question after he spent an entire fight week dodging questions around the title unification fight against Tom Aspinall.
Aspinall remains confident of Jones fight
Throughout the fight week, Jones came up with different excuses about why he didn’t want to fight Aspinall. At first, it was because Jones claimed that the Brit was a ‘nobody’ and he would rather take fights better suited to his legacy like light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, and Jamahal Hill.
After being scrutinized for it and basically given an ultimatum by Dana White, the heavyweight champion moved on to the next reason and claimed that he didn’t want to do business with Aspinall on account of the Brit being an a**hole.
Then Jones told the media that it would have to be a very big fat check that the UFC would need to sign him to take on Aspinall. Aspinall, however, has remained calm and composed as usual and claimed that Jones was being a ‘sassy flirt’. The interim champion claims that he’s had conversations with both Dana White and Hunter Campbell and now remains more confident than ever about the title unification fight taking place.
