Chael Sonnen wonders whether or not Jon Jones has burned his last bridge with fight fans.
When ‘Bones’ announced his return to the Octagon in 2023, people were excited. Two years later, the former two-division champion seems to be on everyone’s sh*t list after practically holding the heavyweight division hostage for two years and forcing interim titleholder Tom Aspinall to sit on the sidelines waiting for a fight that would never come.
Jones ultimately retired from the sport in June, prompting the UFC to promote Aspinall to undisputed heavyweight champion.
13 days later, ‘Bones’ announced that he was jumping back into the UFC testing pool, writing on X: “It feels nice to be the hunter and not the hunted for once.” Needless to say, fans were not amused.
Jones spent pretty much the entirety of his heavyweight title run pissing off fans and dismissing Aspinall as a legitimate challenger. So much so that ‘The American Gangster’ wonders whether or not anyone would actually buy into Jones’ potential return to the Octagon.
“Would you be excited? Can Jon manipulate—convince you, the fan, through the media enough? … Is that a fight that, if that got booked, you could trust and believe it? And if so, how? What would Jon need to do?” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel.
While Jones may be sincere about his decision to unretire, fans will likely remain skeptical up until the moment he actually steps inside the Octagon.
He can thank Conor McGregor for that.
‘The Notorious’ spent the better part of two years misleading fans, making claims about his quote-unquote “greatest comeback in combat sports history” before bowing out of a fight with Michael Chandler over a broken pinky toe.
With that still fresh in the minds of many, it’s safe to say that ‘Bones’ won’t be given the benefit of the doubt anytime soon.
