Chael Sonnen: Jon Jones' handling of Tom Aspinall saga 'infuriating, and it also stops the business'

With UFC 309 in the rear-view mirror, much of the MMA world awaits hopeful of a UFC heavyweight title unification tilt. Interim champion Tom Aspinall has been all-in on that concept since his November 2023 coronation. However, reigning champion Jon Jones hasn't reciprocated the sentiment.

As they say, the ball is in Jones' court.

In the lead-up to his first UFC heavyweight title defense this past Saturday, Jones deflected Aspinall questions galore, putting his focus instead on making things personal between him and Stipe Miocic. Not that Miocic did anything wrong or said anything offensive about Jones. This, former opponent Chael Sonnen says, is vintage Jones playing mind games, creating motivation by turning himself into the victim.

With Aspinall, the same can be said after Jones labeled him "an a**hole" who Jones simply isn't interested in doing business with.

"Jon's got to have a couple of things," Sonnen said on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show." "He's got to be a victim to be in a fight. He's got to be the aggrieved party. The other guy did something to him. That's important, and that's really what gets him going and he can bring out that violence.

"It went as far as to say Stipe talked about his children. That did not happen. And Jon's reasonable. Today he would tell you that it [didn't] happen, but he talked himself into it. And the other thing that Jon really needs is focus. 'I gotta focus on this guy.' He's no longer a wrestler where he's got three and four [opponents] in one day. He's got one guy, and the whole week when Jon was denying Tom or even [hearing] the name of Aspinall, what Jon did not want to do is to get in the ring and deal with what 'Sugar' Sean O'Malley had to deal with, and that's, 'I gotta fight you, Merab [Dvalishvili], when you, [Umar] Nurmagomedov, are sitting right there.' O'Malley had to fight two guys at once.

"Jon made sure he didn't get in that same spot," Sonnen continued. "And Jon was blowing everything off, but it's not because he was considering retirement. He knew Stipe was bigger and more dangerous than anybody he had ever dealt with, and he wanted to have tunnel vision. And like the great veteran that Jon is, he put himself in the greatest situation for himself."

Jones, 37, finds himself in a familiar situation with a role reversal of sorts. In 2021, Francis Ngannou was branded as the new baddest man on the planet following a thunderous knockout of Miocic at UFC 260. That was all the fight world needed to incite a mass clamor for an Ngannou vs. Jones mega-fight.

It felt like a real possibility and everyone seemed open to it, including Jones — if the price was right.

Unfortunately, the fight never happened and Ngannou departed for PFL.

With Aspinall, Jones has been vehemently dismissive of the Brit ever since Aspinall captured interim gold in late 2023. However, Jones finally nudged the door open after UFC 309, saying he'll need "f*** you money" to get him out of bed to fight Aspinall and unify the UFC heavyweight belts.

That's interest, and from Sonnen's perspective, it's all he needs to hear for the fight to get done.

"He's talked himself into this," Sonnen said. "When Jon came back (in 2023), he had (former boxing executive) Richard Schaefer come and negotiate his contract. I remember when I watched this happen. [I was like,] 'Jon, you don't know what you're doing. You've been gone for three years. The model of distribution is so different now. If you come in and you argue a great, big pay-per-view — if you try to do it the old way with the [pay-per-view] ceilings and floors and deliverables, with all the thresholds you left on, you're going to get your ass kicked. It's a different business, and you want to know who doesn't know it? That guy, Richard Schaefer.' And they brought him in, and the UFC couldn't have been happier with what the requests were. They said, 'You got it, kid,' because he didn't know what he was doing.

"He's arguing now, 'It's going to be the biggest fight ever and I need more money.' You get more money. There is no ceiling. Dana (White) does not cap participation.

"So if you do have a tremendous night like Jon is predicting — and I think Jon's right, I think that's the biggest heavyweight fight of all time, I think that's the biggest fight our industry can make right now — he's going to leave there with the biggest check, and that's going to include soaring over Brock Lesnar and the other greats. He's going to be rewarded for it. But if Jon is not confident that he can actually bring in that kind of attention, then how do you go to the table and go, 'Give me a guarantee up front.' I've given you a guarantee. I guarantee you a piece of the business and you don't have any risk. Just get in there and throw your punches and kicks. I'll handle it from there. It's a very great spot."

Ultimately, Sonnen believes Jones is more reasonable than outside viewers may expect.

What "The American Gangster" isn't the biggest fan of was Jones using the UFC against itself in these public negotiation tactics following his win over Miocic.

"It was bad what Jon did," Sonnen said.

"To go on with Megan Olivi on the UFC's cameras, you went to their cameras and you used their camera time to begin to negotiate against the UFC — yes, if you're asking me if that was bad form, yes it was. And secondly, he's got to be taught how this contract works. He's going to get a guarantee. That number doesn't matter. Don't look at that at all. You're doing this purely for the pay-per-view, of which has no cap on it, and he's right, it's a massive pay-per-view. The problem is, when you go in and do these contracts — I'm running the UFC, I've got 776 guys; 770 of them are interchangeable mediocrities who do nothing but cost money, but six guys keep the lights on for everybody. That's the business, no problem.

"But I can't sit and talk with you all, including you six who bring in ROI, so I'm going to sit with you one time, I'm going to do a three-, five-, eight-fight deal, which is my way of saying, 'Don't call me for a while. This is the talk,'" Sonnen continued. "... What are you doing different? You're not doing anything. I did my job so well that you think — you got convinced — that your job should change. It's infuriating [how Jones is handling it], and it also stops the business. So when you come out and you say, 'I need to sit with them and I need to talk with them,' they're going to sit back and go, 'I already have a contract. We've already sat and talked.'

"Somebody should sit Jon down and explain, this is the one. All this work you've done for that payday — this is the one. But we don't need to change the contract, it's already in your contract. And I think if you do explain that to Jon — Jon's more reasonable than people think. He really is a fairly reasonable guy, but you've got to explain it to him. He trusts. He doesn't learn things on his own. He trusts other people. Those people need to just explain to him what the participation contract clause means, I think he would be very happy."