By Chris Howie
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has taken the blunt of the negative publicity associated with the cancellation of UFC 151 but has tried to deflect the blame back towards the UFC and towards his challenger, Dan Henderson.
Jones spoke with MMAFighting.com's Ariel Helwani this week and opened up on a number of topics revolving around the situation, such as why he chose not to fight Chael Sonnen:
“The main reason I didn't take the fight is basically because I talked to my head coach, my muay thai coach and my boxing coach, they know my weaknesses and strengths, they know how my muscles react. Each coach said, straight away that they think I can win the fight but they ALSO said that the want me to be aware that the styles a different, They have different kinds of clinch games, different takedowns… I'm not going to go through all the details of his game because it will sound tacky to those who don't understand fighting but to some it up, Chael Sonnen is a southpaw, has different takedowns, different subs, different ground and pound, he's just a completely different warrior. Taking the fight would be ignorant.”
“People are saying “he's brave enough to fight you, why aren't you brave enough to fight him? There's people on the street right now that would take a fight against me just to see how they would do. Let alone wanting to talk about one of the top fighters in the world wanting to fight me with absolutely nothing to lose.”
“People don't realize Sonnens record is 5-6…. 5-6! Why would I put my world championship on the line against a dangerous opponent but a guy who hasn't even remotely earned the title shot, that's like being someone's jackpot and I refuse to be someone's jackpot.”
You can check out the full interview in the video below:
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