Jon Jones has insisted in recent days that the only fight he's focused on is his UFC Light Heavyweight Championship defense against Dan Henderson at UFC 151 on September 1.
The fact that he's had to do that, though, shows that it's not exactly true.
From dismissing the idea of a second fight with former champion Lyoto Machida to denying interest in a fight with former top middleweight contender Chael Sonnen, it seems like Henderson has been an afterthought in Jones' public comments of late. Of course, Greg Jackson and the rest of Jones' team would never let "Hendo" be anything less than the sole focus when "Bones" Jones is training in Albuquerque, and Jones should absolutely be ready for his fight with Henderson in two weeks.
Still, there's been an elephant in the room amidst the stream of trash talk from Sonnen, and it reared its head on Monday night ahead of Tuesday's UFC 151 conference call: Sonnen is a teammate of Dan Henderson, and made comments to the UFC about how well equipped the former PRIDE and Strikeforce Champion is to beat Jones.
There's nothing sinister here. Sonnen's trash talk is not some kind of Team Quest ruse to distract Jones so that he's off his game against Henderson in Las Vegas on September 1. For one thing, Henderson doesn't need gimmicks. He's an Olympic-class wrestler with a thundering right hand and a résumé in the fight game that includes tournament wins in the UFC and PRIDE and championship reigns in two different weight classes, not to mention wins over the likes of Fedor Emelianenko, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, Wanderlei Silva, and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. At the age of 41, he's still the No. 5 fighter in the world, pound-for-pound, and he's easily the greatest threat that Jones has ever faced.
As for Sonnen, the "Gangster from America" says a lot of things that aren't meant to be taken seriously, but one thing that is serious is his drive for a title belt. Before his UFC 148 clash with Anderson Silva, Sonnen said that one can only "retire" from a sport if he's been a champion. Otherwise, it's just quitting. Having lost twice to Silva, Sonnen's not getting any more title shots at middleweight for the foreseeable future, and so he's moved to light heavyweight. He's a betting favorite over Forrest Griffin at UFC 155, and if he plays his cards right, he can slip in a challenge to Jones between the current crop of elite light heavyweights (Henderson, Rua, Machida, etc.) and the new blood (Glover Teixeira, Alexander Gustafsson, Phil Davis).
Of course, that's all dependent on Jones getting past Henderson in the first place, and as Sonnen reminded the MMA world on Monday night, that's not exactly a given.
