Chael Sonnen makes confident prediction for UFC 214’s Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier fight

This weekend, in the main event of UFC 214, former light heavyweight champion and pound-for-pound great Jon Jones will attempt to reclaim the title he never actual lost opposite dominant reigning champion Daniel Cormier. The bout stands out as the biggest of the year thus far, and pretty much everybody has an opinion on it.

One of the latest members of the MMA community to share their opinion on the fight was three-time UFC title challenger, current Bellator star, and perennial soundbite-generator Chael Sonnen. Sonnen, who lost a title fight against Jones in 2013, gave his take on the fight in an interview with Duane Finley of FloCombat.

“When a younger fighter beats an older fighter and then they rematch…the younger fighter wins again, only easier,” Sonnen said bluntly. “That is the rule of fighting and holds true in boxing, wrestling or MMA. You would have to go back and search two decades to find a scenario where that didn’t happen.”

“There is a meaningful gap in their ages and their first fight wasn’t close,” Sonnen continued. A lot of people forget that but it was not close. I had it 5-0 to Jon Jones and the official judges had it 4-1. It was not a competitive fight. It was fun, and Daniel tried, and by Jon Jones standards next to [Alexander] Gustafsson it was his closest fight, but he still won by a large margin. And to make believe that with age and time Daniel caught him somehow is a big leap.”

While Sonnen seems confident in a Jones win, he did raise some questions about the effect the iron fist of USADA will have on Jones.

“I think it also comes down to how bad was Jon Jones violating USADA?” he said. “The guys we’ve seen in the past that live that life come back and they are different and are different for the worse. Jon says he didn’t do it. I think his body looks a little different, but at the same time, I bought a lot of his story. That’s really the question and we’ll find out on Saturday night.”

What do you think of Chael Sonnen’s take on the UFC 214 Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier main event?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/27/2017.