Cash Rules UFC, Chael Sonnen Gets Jon Jones Fight
Photo by Flickr user bfishadow
by Dr. Octagon, J.D.
Glover Teixeira looked really dominant the other night, so the UFC did the only thing that made sense: they announced Chael Sonnen would get a title shot after the next season of The Ultimate Fighter.
Ah fuck. Looks like Chael has succeeded in talking his way into a title shot. The light heavyweight division is officially cleaned out and Jon Jones will now fight middleweights until he cleans that division out, at which point he will begin fighting the larger welterweights. What the fuck is going on here?
I didn’t mind Chael Sonnen as a last-minute replacement against Jon Jones when no one else was available, but he really does not deserve a title shot at light heavyweight in a non-emergency situation. I’m not sure if the guys over at Zuffa know this, but Sonnen lost his last fight against a middleweight. Sure, it was the best middleweight ever, but I’m not sure how that translates into an immediate title shot against the best light heavyweight ever. [[MORE]]
Of course the UFC cancelled Sonnen’s fight against Forrest Griffin, because if he lost that fight it would probably take another six months of Twitter shit-talking to get him another title shot.
It is unprecedented for a fighter to move up a weight class and get an immediate title shot. (Editor’s note: Welcome to the dark-side, MMA fans) I also can’t remember the last time a guy got a title shot following a loss. I am sure one of our readers will remind me in the bustling comments section below. When Frankie Edgar lost a close decision to Benson Henderson (I’m still sure he won), he moved down a weight class, and Dana said he was going to have to win a fight before he got a title shot (now he’s probably going to get the shot right away after a bunch of injuries).
Even Urijah Faber has to win other fights in-between his plentiful shots at various titles. Hell, when he moved down to bantamweight, they made him win two fights before they gave him a title shot and that division is thin as hell.
From Zuffa’s point of view, Sonnen vs Jones is a win-win-win situation: it will piss Lyoto Machida off, really juice the ratings for The Ultimate Fighter, and sell a million on Pay Per Views with ease. Dana is probably laughing all the way to the bank. Who are the losers? Hardcore fans how care about seeing quality fights and all the viable light heavyweight contenders.
I’ve been pretty clear that I don’t think the Jon Jones versus Anderson Silva fight should be made, because it isn’t fair for Anderson Silva to fight a guy that much bigger than he is. I’m not saying that Anderson Silva would certainly lose, but if we’re making superfights, a fight against George St. Pierre would be more competitive, since the two men are closer in size. I guess I don’t have to go into what I think will happen to Sonnen, a guy that Silva has beaten twice.
Jones could easily fight in the heavyweight division. If he’s going to fight out of his weight class, it should be against Junior Dos Santos, or any other heavyweight. It doesn’t really prove much for a champion to be fighting guys fighting up a weight class.
What does Sonnen have going for him? If conspiracy theorists are to be believed, he’s been doing nothing but pounding on the Nexersys, replacing his testosterone, pumping iron and trolling Jon Jones on twitter. So he should come into the fight yoked as a motherfucker. He’s got a great double leg and absolutely grinding top control if he can get the fight to the ground, but that’s an enormous if.
Chael Sonnen barely beat Michael Bisping. He’s got crappy BJJ, lackluster striking, and is giving up 10.5 inches of reach. That’s a lot of distance to close for Sonnen to get the fight to where he is comfortable. Even if he is able to get it there, he’s got a long-limbed monster waiting to submit him.
We’ve never seen Jones on his back and maybe Sonnen can get him down, but just because anything can happen in MMA doesn’t mean that the matchmaking should devolve intochampions against guys with tons of name recognition and very little chance of winning. If Jones gets through Sonnen, he’ll probably be matched up with Chuck Liddell or Kimbo Slice.
Meanwhile we’ve got a bunch of deserving light heavyweights including Machida, Gustaffson and Teixeira who might be able to test Jones. Instead they’re going to have to wait while a guy who has never fought at light heavyweight gets a shot.
While I am excited to watch a full season of Chael Sonnen trolling Jon Jones in person and doing everything he can to get a mental edge in the octagon, I hope the matchmakers at the UFC get all these “fun” fights out of their system soon. Fighters’ careers are short and every time they waste a fight by having Anderson Silva clowning around with Stefan Bonnar or allowing Jon Jones to pulverize Vitor Belfort, we’re missing out on a great fight involving deserving contenders that might actually test these champions.
The UFC decided to throw competitiveness out the window and go for a quick cash grab. Hopefully it will increase attention in the sport to the point they can throw someone like Glover Teixeira or Chris Weidman into a title fight and not have to worry about Pay Per View buys.
UPDATE: A few of our readers have written in asking why I haven’t included Dan Henderson in this discussion. The reason is that he’s hurt and they’re starting filming the Ultimate Fighter in two weeks. Once he’s healthy, he certainly deserves a title shot.