On Monday, it was announced that Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson had withdrawn from his planned grappling match against Craig Jones at CJI 2 this weekend in Las Vegas due to a case of turf toe. And while no official replacement has been named, one of the biggest names in combat sports says he’s the man stepping in: Chael Sonnen.
On Tuesday on his podcast, You’re Welcome with Chael Sonnen, Sonnen announced that he had spoke with Jones and accepted a challenge to compete against him this weekend.
“I get a call from Craig Jones,,” Sonnen said. “Craig says, ‘Hey, what would you do? I know you’ve been in this spot before, promoting shows, time’s running out.’ …
“My first thought is Mark Kerr. He’s got Smashing Machine coming out. It would be great promotion, perhaps. We dust that idea. The really great [idea] would be to get Wyatt Hendricks. I’ve never heard Whyatt’s played with this stuff, I’ve never heard Whyatt say he wants to do this stuff, but if you’re workshopping ideas, you’ve got to start with Wyatt.
“I then say, for a great poster, say, ‘Hey stupid, I know you can use some money for bail, how about you try this on a conscious opponent,’ and you book Raja Jackson. That’s the caption, nothing else said, put it out. It’ll work.
“So Craig thanks me. … And all of a sudden, Christian Pyles [of Flow Wrestling] calls me and he’s live. … ‘Full disclosure, we’re on the air, will you take on Craig Jones?’ I did not put that together, I must tell you. When Craig had called me earlier in the day and asked me for advice, that was his subtle way of challenging me. I did not get that. I missed that. So I said of course I’ll take on Craig.”
Sonnen has some history with Jones already. The two met in the 2017 Abu Dhabi Combat Club openweight tournament, with Jones submitting Sonnen in the first round via heel hook. And while Sonnen has no ill will towards Jones over that meeting, he says he’s always dreamed of getting another crack at him.
“I go to Abu Dhabi in 2017, I have a very hard superfight,” Sonnen said. “… I am the reigning Abu Dhabi superfight champion, and to get that I had Leo Vieira in the finals, who is a three-time finalist, two-time gold medalist. That’s a big deal to me and I won.
“So after I win the superfight at Abu Dhabi, this is 2017 in Finland. After I win the superfight, and opening comes up in the Absolute. … I get a good draw. I get this 21-year-old kid from Australia, wears these long, colorful tights. His name is Craig Jones. … So I walk to the mat, and he puts me in a submission that I don’t know. I just won the Abu Dhabi superfight. It’s my third time in Abu Dhabi, I’ve won matches every time I’ve gone, but I just won a championship. He puts me in a submission that I simply don’t know.
“He realizes that I don’t know where I am. … He lets that go and he goes to another submission. I don’t know where I’m at. It’s a move that I haven’t seen before. And he lets it go. When he realizes that I’m in actual danger, he lets it go, and he rolls down to a heel hook. I never even tapped, I said, ‘Craig, stop.’ So it was three submissions in the course of a pretty short match. …
“It was a very different game that Craig played. … I’ve had fantasies if I could go back, I could do better, I could shut this down, I could isolate. And I even thought when Gable drew the match, if Gable knows to do these things in my brief experience, he could really elongate the match. Then all the sudden my phone rings and it says, ‘Will you take on Craig Jones?’ So that’s where we’re at. I will be at the Real American Freestyle Event on Saturday, and then I will be catching a plane to Las Vegas to rematch Craig Jones.”
