Chael Sonnen On Jon Jones Walking Back UFC Retirement: 'That's Not How Men Talk'

Former UFC Light Heavyweight and Middleweight Championship challenger Chael Sonnen ripped into Jon Jones for his latest retirement walkback. 

In the ongoing saga that is Jones' run with the UFC, having spent much of his later fighting years fleetingly appearing for the fights he has chosen, he retired last year to vacate the UFC Heavyweight Championship and allow Tom Aspinall, the Interim Champion he had refused to fight, to inherit the division. 

Then UFC announced its upcoming event at the White House, pushing Jones to walkback his retirement and call for a spot on the card. He said in the week ahead of it being announced that he was in negotiations to return, didn't make it onto the final card, and Dana White said afterwards that he was never even considering Jones. 

That prompted Jones to claim he was lowballed in negotiations over a fight with Alex Pereira, and after asking for his release from UFC only recently said he was hanging the gloves up. Until Saturday, when he said that he wasn't sure if he was retired and had felt a fresh fire being in attendance for UFC 327. 

Ever the verbal commentator, Sonnen reacted to Jones first via social media. 

"Jon Jones publicly retired on Friday, which is enough, per the rules, to have yourself removed from the testing pool. Jon Jones, on Saturday, came back and said he is not officially retired, which per the rules, is enough to reinsert yourself into the testing pool. Now, none of that stuff is happening, and it's all very silly, but there is a question: if you're the baddest dude in the world and you're going to be world champion, you've got to be a man."

"Nobody's going to mistake you for a man, let alone the man, if they can't trust you."

Sonnen went on to ask what Jones is worth without his word after changing his stance within 24 hours. 

"There is a simple question, and it's not whether you're retired or not or if you're going to fight again. It's simply, what good is your word?" he said. 

Sonnen continued to say on his YouTube channel that Jones couldn't be counted on, and that he had heard that was the reasoning for not being considered for the White House card. He said it puts the promoter in a difficult position, and pointed to White himself saying so in the UFC 327 press conference. 

"Dana White came out and spoke about this, and Dana said, 'Man, there's nothing different than it has been the last 10 years. I told Lorenzo [Ferttita] a decade ago we can't make a business off this guy.' You can't count on him. When he shows up, is it fun? Sure, but you know the result ahead of time. It's very difficult." 

"That's not how men talk," Sonnen added. He pointed to Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement and how it was known it would be permanent. "There was a respect. While there was a doubt, there was respect, because we knew we could trust him. We knew that his word meant something. Whether we liked it or not, whether we liked what he was saying or not, we knew we could count on it."