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Thursday, Apr 25, 2013

Full Contact Fighter’s “The Daily Takedown:” Jon Jones’ Attitude Wrecking Hype For Saturday’s Show

UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones

By Joshua Molina

You can’t capture lightning in a bottle and nowhere is that more evident than in Saturday’s Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen battle for the light heavyweight championship.

Last summer, the MMA world was abuzz over the fact that Jones turned down a fight with Sonnen. With only eight days notice, Sonnen volunteered to replace Dan Henderson, who went down with a knee injury.

Sonnen is an enigma of sorts, largely because he was less than a minute away from dethroning Anderson Silva, but few still take him seriously as a championship level fighter.

Jones rejected the fight against a smaller guy. Sonnen milked it for everything he could, and the collective MMA world believed Jones to be a coward, or stupid, for turning down the Sonnen fight.

Had that fight been booked in October, instead of this Saturday, the Pay Per View buy rate would have been through the roof.

Instead, what we have is a wily-nily build to the fight, with Sonnen promoting the show practically by himself.

Jones doesn’t believe for a second he can lose and it shows in his pre-fight output.

He comes across as smug, over-confident and arrogant. Jones may be a fighter, but he needs to remember that he fights in a still fringe sport. It’s up to him to sell the fight. He must be a promoter. It’s simply not acceptable for him to ignore Sonnen.

If he’s so confident, he should tell the world he will defeat Sonnen in less than a minute. Instead, we have a Jones who appears bothered to even step inside the cage Saturday night.

And because of that attitude, lots of fans probably won’t bother to watch Jones Saturday night.

Sonnen is in a much better situation. He could get knocked out in 10 seconds Saturday night. Come Sunday, he will still be a bigger star and will have a better future in the sport.

posted by JoshuaM @ 12:56 pm
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