Jon Jones responds to "hater" Chael Sonnen's unexpected praise for his UFC 309 performance: "This is refreshing"

On one of his recent Instagram stories, Jon Jones admitted to being disarmed by Chael Sonnen's decision to praise him. At UFC 309, 'Bones' was successful in defending his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic, finishing him in round three with a crushing spinning back-kick to the body.

That Jones is able to easily dispatch the best fighters in the world, even the very best in history, is astonishing to Sonnen. However, Sonnen has, historically, been one of Jones' biggest critics, often bringing up the latter's past failures. For this reason, Jones was shocked by the praise.

In an Instagram story, Jones shared a clip of Sonnen's comments, and wrote:

"Chael not being a hater for once, this is refreshing."

A screenshot of Jon Jones' Instagram story

Sonnen often brings up Jones' worst transgressions to pass judgment on his character. So, it is only sensible that Jones didn't anticipate such praise for his third-round annihilation of Miocic at UFC 309. However, this isn't the only positive thing that 'The American Gangster' had to say about Jones.

He even went as far as claiming that Francis Ngannou, who 'Bones' was once expected to fight, would have struggled against him. This assessment was corroborated by another well-known Jones critic in former two-division UFC champion Daniel Cormier.

However, Jones hasn't been criticism-free, even in the wake of his UFC 309 win, as many are lambasting him for his continued dismissal of Tom Aspinall, the interim heavyweight champion. Aspinall has been chasing a matchup with Jones for some time now.

Unfortunately for him, it is possible that Jones will price himself out of a fight with Aspinall, much like he allegedly did with Ngannou.

---

Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen once shared the octagon

There is a reason for the animosity between Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen. The two men locked horns for Jones' light heavyweight title at UFC 159, with the build-up to the fight featuring Sonnen's typical brand of trash talk, which bothered Jones to no end. However, come fight night, the outcome was never in doubt.

Jones scored an early takedown, using his skill and physicality to ground Sonnen before unloading with ground-and-pound for a first-round stoppage. In the fight, Jones injured his toe, which would have led to him losing via TKO had it been noticed between rounds in the event that he failed to finish Sonnen.