Chael Sonnen has stepped in on just a few days’ notice to face Craig Jones in a rematch and save the main event superfight at CJI 2. This was never the plan of course, and the match has only come about because of a last-minute injury withdrawal that threw a spanner in the works. Olympic champion Gable Steveson pulled out of his superfight with Jones when there was less than a week to go before the event, leaving Jones and the other organizers scrambling for a replacement. Almost out of nowhere, Sonnen was put forward as a potential replacement and he very publicly accepted the match.
Sonnen has virtually no time at all to prepare for the match and he hasn’t competed in any combat sport in over 6 years, or in a grappling match in 8 years. The last grappling match that Sonnen had was his match with Jones in the opening round of the absolute division of ADCC 2017, where Jones caught him in a heel hook to get the submission win. Although Jones has been significantly more active in the years since, he has also been taking a tour around the United States as his preparation instead of doing a proper training camp at B-Team Jiu-Jitsu.
Given that Jones competed at a much higher level in Jiu-Jitsu than Sonnen did and he is also much closer to his prime, he’s the heavy favorite here. The same was true of Jones’ superfight at the inaugural CJI too though, and plenty of fans were excited to watch that. The same will likely be true of this superfight too, as Sonnen is known for being one of the best trash talkers in the game. Even if he isn’t able to beat Jones on the mats, he’s one of the few people in the combat sports world who might be able to beat him in a battle of wits instead.
Ariel Helwani announced the news that Craig Jones vs Chael Sonnen 2 was officially booked for CJI 2 in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
