Chael Sonnen wonders if Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya would be at catchweight

Chael Sonnen isn’t predicting that Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya would take place at a catchweight but he wouldn’t be surprised if it does.

Jones and Adesanya have gone back-and-forth to the point where fight fans are expecting the two to collide at some point. Jones is in his second reign as the UFC light heavyweight champion, while Adesanya holds the undisputed middleweight gold. Both men have title defenses coming up.

Taking to his YouTube channel, Sonnen said that Adesanya may have more leeway in terms of how this bout comes to fruition.

“When Adesanya tells you, ‘I don’t care about the belt,’ he is telling you the truth,” Sonnen started when discussing a possible Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya bout. “And that wasn’t true for his whole life, he wanted the belt but now he’s got two of em. And he doesn’t need to do champ-champ, I’m just sharing his mindset for you. Since he’s the one taking the risk going up and taking on the bigger guy, I think that in many ways we default to his mindset. By the way, he’s got a whole lot of guys that he can fight that he can do one hell of a good amount of business with, Jon’s not in that same spot. In many ways, the power does shift to Adesanya in that.”

One comment from UFC president Dana White that stuck out to Sonnen was that Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya could happen under the “right circumstances.” Sonnen wonders if that means a catchweight bout.

“If Adesanya said, ‘look I’ll come meet him and we’ll do it at 200 pounds and there’s no belts on the line. I’ll go right back down to 185. Be no logjam, no holding you up. Jon, what do you say? Meet me at 200 pounds? Non-title match? We do a grudge match? What do you say?’ I do not suggest or predict for any of you that those two are going to go and fight and that this is gonna be a non-title match in some weird and goofy weight class,” Sonnen continued. “I’m just sharing with you because Dana had thrown out kind of a loose term. He said, ‘well under the right circumstances.’ I’m very curious, what would those be?”

Do you think the UFC would consider booking Jon Jones vs. Israel Adesanya at a catchweight?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 2/4/2020.