The Doggy Bag: ‘They Said What?!’ Edition

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What awaits Chael Sonnen at 205 pounds? I think he'll run through Forrest Griffin, and, after that, there's easy matchups with guys like Vladimir Matyushenko, Ryan Bader and old Rogerio Nogueira. I think he can make waves at light heavyweight up until Jon Jones dominates him, but they'd be able to promote a hell of a fight. -- Mason from Nebraska

Tristen Critchfield, associate editor: Considering the events of the past few days, I can’t imagine a Jones-Sonnen fight not happening at some point. Interest for this bout was high as soon as Sonnen began his Twitter assault on the light heavyweight champion, but now that Jones refused to fight him at UFC 151, the clamor has only grown.

Sonnen’s stock has never been higher than it is right now. By stepping up when Dan Henderson was forced to withdraw from the bout against Jones, the Oregonian enhanced his standing in the eyes of UFC brass and fans alike. Before all of the UFC 151 cancellation craziness went down, I thought that a win over Griffin, who looked completely underwhelming against Tito Ortiz earlier this summer, would do little to make Sonnen a title contender. Now I’m not so certain that fight even has to happen.

It doesn’t matter if Jones beats Belfort; Sonnen is his next logical destination, whether you believe the self-proclaimed “Gangster from West Linn” has earned the shot or not. He doesn’t need a warm-up fight against Griffin, either. The UFC is in the business of selling and promoting fights. With a month or two of promotion behind it, Jones-Sonnen could potentially rival Anderson Silva-Sonnen 2 in terms of pay-per-view buys.

Sonnen is a smart man. While it’s unclear if he knew something about Henderson’s knee the rest of us didn’t know when he initially began to needle Jones, he didn’t change weight classes to face gatekeepers. He wants to make money, sell big fights and stay in the spotlight. If cutting to 170 pounds were possible, I believe Sonnen would have called out Georges St. Pierre by now. Instead, he has his sights set on Jones. It’s a matchup that would have seemed farfetched a couple months ago. Now, it’s pretty damn close to mandatory.

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