Chael Sonnen suggests Jon Jones hinting at retirement after UFC 309 is simply a marketing ploy.

Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC) defends his heavyweight title vs. former champion Stipe Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) in the Nov. 16 main event at Madison Square Garden in New York. Jones recently reiterated that Miocic will likely be his last fight, but Sonnen isn’t buying it. He believes it’s worth noting that Jones specifically used the words “more than likely.”

“I’m watching this, oh, Jon has grabbed onto that retirement idea,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “He did not mean it. It was completely insincere. It wasn’t even his idea. Somebody else said it, he heard it, thought it might be good to go with. And (there are) a couple of different reasons guys that are not going to retire say that they’re going to retire.

“One could be he heard somebody else say it, thought it might be good marketing. He never comes out and does anything to try for marketing, and he went for it. Another one is just the same reason you did things like that when you were a child. So that somebody else would tell, oh no, hey, whoa, we want you, you’re great.”

UFC CEO Dana White confirmed that interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall will be the official backup for Jones vs. Miocic.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.

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