“Witness a man’s dream of becoming a champion be demolished.” – Jon Jones
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and his UFC 159 opponent Chael Sonnen have a great history of exchanging unkind words. When Sonnen made the jump to the light heavyweight division last year, he immediately wanted a shot at the title, because he’s a confident guy and that’s pretty typical. Leading up to UFC 151, Sonnen predicted that Dan Henderson would defeat Jones, and that if “there’s anything left of him” he’d still like to fight Jones.
Jones’ response to Sonnen’s prediction was less than kind, as he said that Sonnen fought like a child against Anderson Silva, before calling him a coward and a cheater. Henderson, of course, pulled out of 151 with an injury just days before the event was scheduled to go down, and even with Sonnen offering to take his place, Jones refused and the entire PPV was canceled.
Long story short, the two were named the coaches for The Ultimate Fighter 17 and tomorrow night they face each other in the main event at UFC 159 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. And while Sonnen has been actually singing Jones’ praises this week, Jones Tweeted that this is all Sonnen is going to see…
If anything, this PPV has given us one of my favorite promotional commercials of all-time, as the Chael Sonnen voiceover ads have had me cracking up for the past month. They’ve gotten to the point that I’ll be ordering food and I’ll say, “There’s a name for the person who’s about to eat this sandwich and it’s CHAEL SONNEN.” You have to be there. The waitress laughs every time.
As for the rest of the fight card, you can chiggity check it below and read our own Lobster Mobster’s handy dandy fight primer to prepare. Join us tomorrow night starting at 8 PM ET for the preliminary fights on FX and 10 PM ET for the PPV fights.
(Banner via UFC)