Chael Sonnen

By Joshua Molina

Now might be a good time for Chael Sonnen to dig deep into his pro wrestling bag of carnival tricks.   That’s because it doesn’t look like he has any plan to upset Jon Jones this Saturday.

So far, his biggest strategy is to stroke Jones’ ego.  Sonnen actually said Jones is better than Anderson Silva!

Sonnen may be taking part in a little verbal rope-a-dope, but most likely he’s trying to prepare the MMA world for the inevitable.  Jones is going to knock out or submit Sonnen fairly quickly.

There’s only one way on paper Sonnen can win — by grinding out a five-round decision. That will be close to impossible.

He doesn’t have the hand or leg speed to knock Jones out. It’s possible that he could submit him, but not likely.  Jones is younger, bigger, stronger and has knockout strength in his arms and legs.

Sonnen’s constant affection for Jones may be a tactic to soften Jones mentally so that Jones is less mean when they enter the cage.  Or, since Sonnen is a big pro wrestling fan, maybe he’s just in character, faking us all out.

Maybe he has a secret weapon.

He’s gonna need a pair of brass knuckles, a roll of quarters, or some other foreign object to pull off this upset.