Chael Sonnen is confused by how the entire Jon Jones retirement saga played out.
Jones (28-1 MMA, 22-1 UFC) dragged out the negotiations for his title-unification bout with Tom Aspinall before opting to relinquish his UFC heavyweight title and retire. However, it took Jones just a couple of weeks to change his mind and re-enter the drug testing pool, after he heard about the UFC’s planned event at the White House next summer.
Although Dana White says no chance he’d rely on Jones competing at the White House, the former two-division champion said in a recent interview that he’s back training five times a week in preparation for his return. Sonnen calls shenanigans.
“Here’s the problem with it: Nothing has slipped out on Instagram. Nobody is claiming to work out with Jon Jones. No one’s claiming they saw Jon Jones work out. And most importantly, nobody’s saying that they’re the trainer,” Sonnen said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier.
“He’s got a mythical trainer at a gym yet to be identified, working out with bodies who have never been named. I just think that’s a lot. I mean, if he came out here to Oregon and we saw him in the gym, there’d be a line and people who would want autographs and it would be a really big deal.”
With Jones vacating his belt, Aspinall was promoted as undisputed champion. Aspinall defends his heavyweight title against Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 headliner on Oct. 25 in Abu Dhabi. Sonnen says Jones now coming back is a bad look.
“If Jon says that he’s back and he was never injured, he was never ill, he just didn’t want to fight Tom Aspinall – that’s the part to me that’s a little bit weird,” Sonnen said. “He’s playing this as though that retirement never happened, as opposed to this is a comeback. If you’re coming back, what are you coming back for? What is it that you’re coming back to? And is it just an open slate to admit anything? ‘Anyone except that guy, that guy over there in England. Anybody but him.’ Is that how we’re supposed to interpret this?”
