Sonnen: Dan Henderson and I set up Jon Jones on eight days’ notice
Jon Jones repeatedly questioned all of the motives surrounding Chael Sonnen’s quick step-in to fight him at UFC 151. Jones believed that Sonnen may have been in training to face him, but that may or may not have matter at all. While Jones ultimately turned down the fight with Sonnen, citing a lack of preparation time with only eight days’ notice, both Henderson and Sonnen denied that Chael knew anything about Hendo’s injury.
In fact, when the whole scene exploded and Henderson appeared on “The MMA Hour” to discuss the situation, he said that Sonnen knew nothing about his knee injury:
“Chael didn’t know anything about it. He had definitely not been training at all. My guys told me that Greg Jackson said in an interview that Chael was down training with me and getting ready for the fight and knew I was hurt. It was nothing like that at all. He wasn’t even down here. I asked him if he wanted to come down and help me train a couple months ago, but he didn’t come down.”
However, on last night’s “UFC Tonight,” Sonnen appeared to sing an entirely different tune. Set to face Shogun Rua at UFC on Fox Sports 1 from Boston, Sonnen claimed that he set up the fight with Rua just like he and Hendo set up the one with Jones:
“You know, it really got put together through Little Nog’s cowardice. I’ve been training for Shogun for a while. I knew this was going to happen. This kind of reminds me of the time me and Dan Henderson set up Jon Jones on eight days’ notice. He finally admitted it.”
So Sonnen admits he may have been preparing for Jones before the call actually came with the offer late last August. No official word or confirmation has surfaced from Dan Henderson and his camp, who are busy with the final preparations to face Rashad Evans at this weekend’s UFC 161.
I’m not sure how that admittance would really have any bearing on Sonnen’s current situation, as he lost to Jones handily via first-round TKO at UFC 159. Apparently, Sonnen’s been training for Shogun for some time now too. Maybe that result will be different. It had better be, or fans will quickly stop believing Sonnen’s trash talk, if they haven’t already.
