Big fights equal big paydays. That’s the theory that professional fighters are beginning to subscribe to, and they are starting to behave in manners that help create both. Enter Chael Sonnen. We’ve seen his antics create not one, but two major paydays in fights against Anderson Silva. While he was unsuccessful in both attempts, there is no denying the fact that his ability to build anticipation for those fights helped lead to the commercial success of the two events. Now Sonnen has moved to a new weight class and is looking to continue his antics. This time, his target is Jon Jones, but unlike Silva, Jones seems very ready to play the game.
UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones has positioned himself to become the biggest star that the Ultimate Fighting Championship has within their ranks. He’s due to face future Hall of Famer Dan Henderson at UFC 151. While many experts have Jones as the walk away favorite for this bout, overlooking the danger that Henderson poses is a mistake that Jones cannot afford to make — especially when the potential money of a matchup against Sonnen is on the horizon. Jones has already talked about the importance of Pay Per View buys, as he garnered the ire of some fans when he expressed a disinterest in facing Lyoto Machida for a second time because the former champion was his lowest-drawing PPV opponent to date.
With that in mind, Sonnen and Jones have already started to interact in such a way that already has people looking forward to a contest between the two fighters. They’ve exchanged tweets at each other through the popular social network Twitter, and Jones has even called some of Sonnen’s comments leading up to his bout with Silva racist. Jones went on to say that “As Americans, we should all be embarrassed by what he did.” Call it what you want, but those comments sound like the lead up to the fighting words that we see during fight promotions. These two individuals have the ability to create a fight that can easily be one of the biggest and most lucrative we’ve seen in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, for the fighters as well as for the promotion.
One of the main factors that held back the buildup between Silva and Sonnen was Silva’s apparent inability to speak fluent English during press conferences and phone calls. Yet we all saw how excited the MMA media became when Silva finally “lost his cool” during a pre-fight conference call. Imagine what the response would have been if he would have done so in a similar fashion, but in English. While we’ll likely never see Jones go off in a violent, profanity-laced tirade, he does have the ability to respond to Sonnen in ways that will get and keep fans and media talking about this fight, well before it can even be announced. Both Jones and Sonnen have polarizing personalities, and fans either love them or hate them, so those perceptions would play a large role in the buildup to this fight.
But first things first; both Sonnen and Jones need to win their next bouts (Sonnen faces Forrest Griffin at UFC 155) in order for this fight to occur, and this should provide additional motivation. Some fans and members of the media may not like it, but MMA is a professional sport filled with athletes who are looking to make the most money possible during their fleeting careers. If both men are able to win, and Sonnen can convince the world that he is a worthy contender for Jones, then there would be few individuals who would be able to argue against making the fight. Light Heavyweight is truly in dire straits when it comes to potential contenders beyond Alexander Gustafsson, so Sonnen has come around at just the right time.
The fact still remains, MMA isn’t like other professional sports, where a loss could mean the derailment of an entire year. However, with mixed martial arts, a defeat at the wrong time could quickly destroy anticipation for that fighter’s fights, and place that fighter years behind his or her goal. Jones and Sonnen have already grabbed everyone’s attention by discussing each other in a fashion that could develop into loathing and vitriol, at least in a promotional sense. If both Jones and Sonnen are able to emerge victorious from their next fights, and the UFC pulls the trigger on putting these two individuals together in the Octagon, it would be a safe bet that this fight would reap one of the largest financial rewards for any fight created within mixed martial arts to date.
