Chael Sonnen: Jon Jones claiming to be ‘230 with a six-pack’ is ‘beyond peculiar’

Speaking at a press conference ahead of his UFC 247 title fight with Dominick Reyes, UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones divulged that he’s now living with his nutritionist, and that he’s packed on a bit of extra size.

“Right now, I’m living with my nutritionist and I’ve built a home gym in my garage and I feel really, really good right now,” Jones said. “I’m 230 with a six-pack.”

Jones has recently been flirting with the idea of a move to the heavyweight division, but he’ll first have to defend his 205-pound title against Reyes. Given that fact — and the fact that Jones has had some run-ins with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in the past — MMA analyst Chael Sonnen finds the champ’s comments “beyond peculiar.”

Sonnen aired his suspicions on his YouTube channel.

“Jon made a couple of statements in this,” Sonnen began. “He said ‘I’m living with my nutritionist and I’m 230 with a six-pack.’ Now who knows if that’s just gamesmanship, and that’s just fun. But is beyond peculiar if we take him at his word.

“Jon Jones goes about 218 [pounds],” Sonnen continued, sharing what he claims is Jones’ usual weight between fights. “Jon Jones, when he’s not training, when he’s totally stagnant, goes about 225. Now, that was a juiced-up Jon Jones. That’s a Jon Jones who documentation and science tells us was on steroids. So a Jon Jones that’s come off of steroids… Look, steroids work in this way: bigger, stronger, faster, in that order. The very first thing you do is they make you bigger. So when you come off of steroids, naturally, you gotta get a little bit smaller. So for him to say he’s now at 230 and has a six-pack — and again that good be gamesmanship, I’m just saying if this was accurate information — while living with a nutritionist, you’re kind of thinking Jon, this is really obvious. Fire that nutritionist!”

Sonnen then took things a step further, suggesting that if Jones was being sincere about his mass gain, he could be using performance-enhancing drugs.

“Why is your weight going up when you’ve got a signed contract to be going at 205 pounds?” Sonnen asked of Jones. “Why would you be living with a nutritionist who’s putting weight on you and you’re doing interviews about a weight class that you’re not contracted to be in? You’ve got to go the other way. It’s just odd. Then when you throw the six-pack in… This is basic physiology, but you cannot gain muscle without gaining fat. For every pound of muscle there’s x amount of fat that your body has to put on. Then when it’s time for competition you can try to take the fat off and hope that muscle stays. But you don’t put on muscle without putting on fat unless you’re doing something superhuman, which would take you out of a regular human species physiology — known as steroids! So why he put that interview out is beyond my ability to understand.”

What do you think of these comments from Chael Sonnen? How do you think Jon Jones will react?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 1/3/2020.