UFC 152 Preview: Jon Jones Says Chael Sonnen Undeserving Of Title Shot

by Dr. Octagon, J.D. 

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones stood by his decision this week to turn down a fight with Chael Sonnen on short notice, which led to the cancellation of UFC 151.

“I don’t regret the decision,” Jones said Tuesday on ESPN’s SportsCenter. “I pretty much had everything to lose in that situation. Chael Sonnen is a guy whose record is, I think, 6-5, which isn’t a very good record to even fight for a world title.

I just thought it would be a bad decision to give a guy the opportunity of a lifetime like that.”

So Jon Jones thinks Chael Sonnen is undeserving of a title shot, but he’s now fighting Vitor Belfort at UFC 152. That’s weird because his trainer Greg Jackson said the reason they didn’t take the fight because Chael was really dangerous, and they didn’t have time to prepare on eight days notice. Let’s file this under Jon Jones needs to stop talking, because he rarely helps himself by doing so.[[MORE]]

Jones also told ESPN that he cares about the record for successful title defenses by a light heavyweight champ:

“A rematch would not have been an option because I’m closing in on the record for consecutive wins in the division, and that’s really driving me,” Jones said. “I’m a champion, so the only direction I can go is down unless I find ways to stay at the top, unless I have things like records to spur me on to greater things.

Risking a loss, and starting all over on my immediate goal - the record for successful title defences at 205 - would have absolutely sucked.”

Jones is probably the only person that thinks fighting middleweights should count towards the record. Maybe he’ll take a fight against Frankie Edgar next, to make sure he doesn’t risk a loss.

Statements like the one above are the reason people hate Jon Jones. Fights where Jones has the risk of losing are what fight fans call “good fights” and what athletic commissions consider competitive and worth sanctioning. Jones might be a blithering idiot, but he is an exceptional fighter, and unless he gets in the ring with Junior Dos Santos, most oddsmakers aren’t going to put his odds of losing very high.

I don’t think that anyone is taking this “record” seriously, when he is ducking fights against dangerous middleweights like Sonnen to take a fight against even less dangerous fighters like Belfort. It is beginning to seem like Jones doesn’t want to take a fight unless he is a 7-to-1 favorite.

When was the last time another champion took a fight against a lighter fighter that was not also a champion? I can’t think of anyone. If you look at a guy like Anderson Silva, the only guys he fights out of his weight class are heavier than him. He might fight George St. Pierre, but he’d never consider taking a fight against any other welterweight. It just wouldn’t be sporting.

We just saw boxing middleweight champion Sergio Martinez fight a much bigger man in Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is an enormous middleweight. The champion took the fight to the bigger man, and even after he got knocked down in the twelfth, continued to push forward despite the fact he could have easily won the fight by running away for the last minute. That is what fight fans expect. Not this bullshit pulling guard on Rashad Evans with one minute to go, which Jon Jones pulled in his last fight.

No one wants to see a champion that doesn’t want to take risks. Jones is already the biggest light heavyweight with the longest reach in the UFC. If he’s going to fight a guy out of his weight class, he could at least match up against smaller heavyweights.

Let’s take a look at Vitor Belfort’s record to see if he is deserving of a title shot. Start with Vitor’s weight. He’s a middleweight, which is something that critics might consider a detriment to his claim for a shot at the light heavyweight title. Some may assume there would be a more deserving fighter in Jones’ weight class, but apparently no one wants to fight him.

Vitor’s last fight was a win against Anthony Johnson. Anthony Johnson was a welterweight that failed to make weight so many times they made him fight at middleweight, where he again failed to make weight. After the fight with Vitor, he was dropped from the UFC. That win was enough to get Vitor a fight against Jones, an unstoppable physical freak that cuts a crapload of weight to stay in the weight class above middleweight.

Before that Belfort beat Sexiyama, which was the third loss in Sexiyama’s current four-fight losing streak. Prior to that fight, Belfort was knocked out by front kick by Anderson Silva. (That’s a kick that back in the day, people didn’t even think was worthwhile to throw in an actual fight, until Andy Silva and Lyoto Machida started knocking fools out with it.)

In the fight before Silva, Belfort knocked out Rich Franklin. That’s his most legit win and the reason why he got the title shot. He had wins over Matt Lindland, Terry Martin, James Zikicand and Ivan Serati, but lost to Dan Henderson in 2006.

So since ince 2006, Belfort has been spectacularly knocked out by Silva, beaten a bunch of bums, and had one good win over Rich Franklin. Apparently that’s enough to get him a title fight up one weight clas,s against a guy that might be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

When Jones says he didn’t fight Sonnen because Chael didn’t deserve a title shot, he might have been able to make a reasonable argument. Until he took the fight against Belfort. Chael’s given Silva a few scares, and has also beaten Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami and Michael Bisping recently. Belfort’s record isn’t nearly as distinguished.

That being said, Belfort is a puncher and Jones has never been hit properly. So there is still the possibility Jones could get tagged and end up in trouble. It’s unlikely given the reach difference, but not impossible. Even though Belfort has a less distinguished resume, he might actually be a better matchup against Jones than Chael. I guess we’ll have to wait until Saturday to find out.