Jon Jones should step back into the octagon against a particular heavyweight, one who doesn't happen to be the reigning UFC champion, per a former opponent of Jones. This sentiment was expressed by Chael Sonnen on his YouTube channel where 'The American Gangster' shouted out a former two time opponent of Tom Aspinall's for who he thinks could give Jones a run for his money.
Expounding upon why he feels the number four ranked heavyweight contender in the UFC could give 'Bones' a stiff test inside the confines of the cage, Sonnen said,
“The hardest opponent for Jon Jones has not changed. The hardest stylistic matchup for Jon Jones, and this has been true for the better part of half a decade, is Curtis Blaydes. Now, you let that sink in and you do with that what you want, but as far as matchup goes, the highest achievement that Jon ever had in wrestling was something called a junior college national championship; a very good and hard achievement. Curtis Blaydes’ highest achievement is that same exact title, one weight class apart. Curtis Blaydes is also a junior college national champion. Jon did it at 197 pounds and Curtis did it at heavyweight.”
Jon Jones acting like his retirement never happened, Sonnen questions Jones' return
The Jon Jones retirement saga and the emergent talks of Jones wanting to return to compete at next year's UFC White House card are leaving Sonnen perplexed. The title unification talks with Tom Aspinall dominated MMA media headlines for months with Jones inauspiciously choosing to vacate his belt with Dana White stating 'Bones' was hanging up the gloves at the UFC Baku post-event press conference.
Jones has since re-entered the UFC's drug testing pool for the White House card next Summer with promoter Dana White mentioning that Jones being featured on that particular card would be a one billion to one type of likelihood. Despite Jones claiming he is back to training five days a week, Sonnen has his doubts as he has not seen anyone come out to claim they're training with the former two division UFC champion and no one is coming out claiming to be coaching Jones.
The former two division UFC title challenger mentioned this on a recent episode of Good Guy/ Bad Guy which Chael Sonnen regularly hosts with fellow former Jones adversary, Daniel Cormier. As he expressed himself on that referenced podcast, Sonnen stated [via MMA Junkie],
"If Jon says that he's back and he was never injured, he was never ill, he just didn't want to fight Tom Aspinall; that's the part to me that’s a little bit weird. He's playing this as though that retirement never happened, as opposed to this is a comeback. If you're coming back, what are you coming back for? What is it that you're coming back to? And is it just an open slate to admit anything? 'Anyone except that guy, that guy over there in England. Anybody but him.' Is that how we're supposed to interpret this?"