Sometimes it looks like Chael Sonnen seems to want to get beaten down. Uncle Chael has a tendency to shoot his mouth off and we do not think that is a surprise to anyone. His latest rant is directed at former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier.
Daniel came out on social media in support of Jon Jones potentially fighting Francis Ngannou. Jones and Cormier have one of the most covered and well-known rivalries in the history of the UFC so Daniel‘s support of Jon raised eyebrows.
Ever since the back-and-forth of Francis and Jones started heating up the trolls have come out in force. There are fans out there who are claiming that Jon, who has beaten every challenger the company has booked him against is somehow scared to fight Francis Ngannou. I think the real sticking point is probably going to be money because of two things.
The first is that Jones does not need to fight Francis and the second is that Jones does not need to move up to heavyweight. He could stay as light heavyweight champion and keep his win streak going and potentially set morerecords. His legacy is already set and he is perennially the number one pound for pound fighter on major news site lists. Francis is the one who could benefit the most from this.
Since heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic doesn’t appear to be training at the moment and hasn’t even given a rough timeframe for his return it looks like the heavyweight championship title picture is going to be gridlocked. A trilogy fight with Daniel Cormier is expected to be next for the champ but not even the idea of that fight has been agreed to by Stipe. This means that Francis would have to sit back and wait to fight the winner of that fight and hope no one was injured in the process. There aren’t a lot of big money options for him without the names Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic included in the discussions. So the next best thing would be finally luring Jones to heavyweight. That fight markets itself. The scariest man in the heavyweight division in Ngannou against the greatest lightheavyweight fighter of all time in Jones.
Daniel’s support of Francis vs Jon has drawn criticism for a few reasons. One is that some claim he is only behind it so that he would be guaranteed the next title shot. The argument could be made that because Cormier plans to retire after his next fight that it shouldn’t be for a title that he would immediately vacate if he won. regardless of the reason one thing is certain – Daniel Cormier supporting Jon has not sat well with uncle Chael.
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