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Chael Sonnen is convinced that Jon Jones fights Tom Aspinall.
Heavyweight champion Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) continued to brush aside interim champion Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) after retaining his belt with a TKO of Stipe Miocic at the UFC 309.
Jones provided a positive update on his fighting future, but with Aspinall still interim champion, Sonnen says that can only mean one thing.
“The UFC is not without influence here,” Sonnen said on “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “The reason they kept the belt around Tom was to let Jon know, ‘It’s OK to take that one off your waist. We’ve got another one right here. We’ve got champions of the world – they’re really easy to do here at the UFC.'”
UFC CEO Dana White shut down Jones’ ambition to fight light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, giving Sonnen even more confidence that it’s Aspinall or bust for Jones – even if Jones isn’t convinced about fighting Aspinall.
“I’ll let you know what the UFC stands for – Jon has two choices: You fight Tom or you don’t fight,” Sonnen said. “No one else will be offered. In fact, we have one name that has come off the table (of possibilities) in terms of Alex Pereira.
“Dana put this to absolute rest, and when the oddsmakers billed it as a 6-to-1 spread in favor of Jones, this fight disappeared. So Jon can sit back and not fight – that’s right .But he’s not going to be in a place where he could fight anyone else. It’s basically retiring, (or) it’s fighting Tom Aspinall.
Jones recently posted a series of tweets in which he discussed the potential circumstances if he decides to retire. He continued to stick to his words about a fight against Aspinall adding nothing to his legacy.
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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Chael Sonnen: ‘It’s basically a question of retiring or fighting Tom Aspinall’ for Jon Jones
