How do you get what you want in life? Are you the type of person that will grind it out and work mass overtime and hope to be awarded at some point in time? Or are you the type who will hide a stapler in jello so your co-worker cannot turn his report in on time and you look better than the assistant to the regional manager?
Answer these questions and enjoy this new fun fact: UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will defend his title for a fifth time on April 27, 2013 against Chael Sonnen, whom he will be coaching against in the upcoming season of “The Ultimate Fighter” which is scheduled to begin filming later this month.
Feeling a little confused as to why other light heavyweights are not getting their shot like: Dan Henderson, Lyoto Machida, and others? Join the club because what you are reading is true and it seems like Dana White has channeled his inner Michael Scott and just does things that sound good and not make the most sense.
Look at the main reason for this fight: cash money. Sonnen and Jones have history; they have gone back and forth on Twitter and putting them in a competition to show that their knowledge of the fight game for six weeks should help boost ratings to a show that should be cancelled if their season is not a success. Honestly, who is watching this anymore?
Sonnen has competed at light heavyweight in his career, beginning and dropping to middleweight after compiling an overall record of 14-7. Since fighting in Anderson Silva-land, he has done well but come up short in both UFC title matches and shows his weakness: submission defense. Getting a title shot right off the bat as he moves up in weight can only be attributed to his biggest weapon: his mouth.
Spouting and making headlines is why Sonnen is a relevant and known fighter right now because he can ramble on and make people pay attention. Will his trash talk get under Jones “humble demeanor” and not allow the champion to become distracted or will he just be wasting energy and material for a comedy book?
What does he pose against the champion in the title fight? Aside from an outstanding wrestling pedigree, can he knock Jones out with a perfectly placed shot? Sure the fighting game gives a punchers chance to anyone but can Sonnen avoid the range?
I think so, he faced the same problem against Silva and we saw him get the fight to the ground. What will he do with Jones if on the ground? We saw Vitor Belfort expose a hole in his game with submission defense but could this be the key to win for the “American Gangster?” Probably not, his best bet would be to impose will and grind a decision on Jones, hold him down and either punch it to a stoppage or get the W via points.
Now moving on to Jon Jones. I could write articles on numerous topics on the New York native that range from fighting style, attitude in/out the cage and many other things. I do not dislike him as a person; perhaps he poses himself as something other than he is but that should not and does not tarnish or dilute his abilities and presence inside the UFC.
Seemingly unbeatable, he admits that he has weaknesses and areas to improve; doing so only boosts his stock and will promise even more amazing accomplishments in his career. What he can do physically, he lacks emotionally – maturity. We saw him get broken earlier in Twitter wars with Sonnen before his UFC 152 match and even in the pre-fight media for UFC 145, he was annoyed with Rashad Evans trash talk and “disrespect”.
Winning the belt as young (and easily) as he did, the sense of supremacy would have tackled most of us; after all Jones is only 25 years old. How many of us have had the successes and accomplishments he has in such short time? He will need to grow up quick, if he has not already and avoid the mental aspect of fighting. Before he faced Vitor Belfort, Jones contacted Dana White to “tell Chael Sonnen to stop talking trash about me.” Numerous men over the years have always stated “if you can beat a man mentally, you will beat him physically.”
Defeating Sonnen will be another name on the belt and should either be the red carpet to the heavyweight division or the stage for one more big name before his move up; this will also be his first non former UFC champion he has faced in a title fight, will this be more or less pressure for his performance? We will wait and see!
As exciting as this title fight is, let’s all just wait and see how their season will go? Who will be the biggest instigator if not Chael? Will it be another all star Jackson’s MMA coaching staff for the season? Maybe the Oregon native can bring in Dan Henderson, Randy Couture and other Team Quest affiliates to make the show refreshing once again.
