Chael Sonnen believes heavyweight champion Jon Jones outed the UFC by revealing that it called him to headline UFC 300.
Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC), who’s currently recovering from surgeries on a torn pectoral muscle and left elbow, claimed that he declined a recent offer to headline UFC 300 on nine weeks’ notice.
Sonnen, who fought Jones at UFC 159 in April 2013 and suffered a first-round TKO loss, has had many issues with him over the years. His former opponent airing that publicly is another misstep in Sonnen’s opinion.
“Jon Jones comes out and he says, ‘Yeah, the UFC, they just offered me a main event for UFC 300,’ and I would just have absolutely no idea what goes through that guy’s head,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “There’s a level of stupid that’s really hard to achieve. I mean, it’s hard. And in fairness, I wouldn’t know. When would it be OK for Jon to claim that he was offered a main event at UFC 300? When would that be OK to claim? When he wasn’t. If he was not offered that, if he’s working, if that’s a hustle to get a headline, he did a great job.
“You have a heavyweight champion of the world who is amongst the best to have ever done it in any weight class. Heavyweight sucks, so it’s not like a compliment to say, ‘He’s the best heavyweight ever.’ No, man, I’m talking about a real compliment to Jon, just one of the best to ever do it period. But you have to understand if no one’s talking about you, then you’re not. It’s not questionable or a maybe. If the world’s not talking about you, you’re not.”
Sonnen questions the validity of Jones’ UFC 300 claim. He referenced Daniel Cormier calling Jones a bad employee to explain that Jones saying he was offered a UFC 300 headlining spot does harm to the company.
“If he made this up, if this is a lie about 300, great job,” Sonnen said. “First time you’ve ever done a great job – great job. But because it would be the first time, because that’s off brand, I don’t think it’s what happened. I think he got a phone call. So, now he comes out and he outs the organization. He just outs the organization, ‘Hey man, these guys don’t have a main event.'”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.
