Colby Covington thinks Alex Pereira can “definitely” book a room for Jon Jones in the shadow realm. ‘Poatan’, of course, has said that he wants to move up to heavyweight, and ‘Bones’ is positively enthusiastic at the prospect of fighting the 205lbs kingpin. ‘Chaos’ thinks that Pereira has the power and the striking to catch Jones early and shut his lights if they ever fight.

On the other hand, most fans disagree with the Clovis native, and for good reasons. The going narrative is that Jones’ grappling skills and superior size would be too much for the Brazilian since Pereira has virtually no ground game and struggled massively against grappler Jan Blachowicz two years ago. But Covington’s new coach and verbose analyst, Chael Sonnen has jumped to the former interim champ’s defense. For a pretty strange reason, it must be said.

“Colby was the clearest number one contender, but he could not get a world title fight. He was the interim champion of the world that never lost and woke up one day and didn’t have the belt. Colby defeated 50-45 by three the reigning sitting BMF champion but was never declared champion himself. For Colby, whose career is a riddle to give you a riddler over here on Pereira that’s a very fair comparison. And to act as though Colby’s out to lunch by saying that Pereira could knock out Jon Jones, yeah Pereira could knock out Jon Jones,” Sonnen said on his official YouTube channel.

What Sonnen is referencing is the fact that Covington won the interim welterweight title in 2018. However, ‘Chaos’ couldn’t fight then-undisputed champ Tyron Woodley at UFC 228 due to medical reasons. The UFC made Darren Till vs. Tyron Woodley for the undisputed title, instead, and the American was stripped.

Then, in 2022, ‘Chaos’ fought Jorge Masvidal, who had won the BMF title in 2019. But since that title was a one-and-done at that time and wasn’t on offer in the Covington-Masvidal fight, the former ATT member did not become the new BMF champ. And Sonnen feels that since ‘Chaos’ has been such a unique experience in his career, he is correct in his take on a possible Jones-Pereira fight. Yeah, we don’t completely understand his logic either. But what are the prospects that Jones and Pereira will ever fight?

What are the prospects of Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira happening?

Jon Jones and Alex Pereira, as we have mentioned, would both be up for a fight at heavyweight. There were even serious speculations not too long ago that the UFC may just make that fight because of how commercially successful it would be. But with Jones negotiating to fight interim champ Tom Aspinall and Pereira reportedly set to fight Magomed Ankalaev next, many feel that Jones-Pereira may never happen since many think Jones will retire after the Aspinall fight.

But that is just speculation. Jones has been talking about retiring for the past year, but that just seems to have been a negotiating tactic. And the fight makes perfect sense for at least Jones, based on his favorable stylistic matchup with Pereira. Not to mention the fight would do excellent business, perhaps even more than a Jones-Aspinall fight.

Why would Jon Jones not take a relatively easy fight which would make him a very wealthy man? That too, against an all-time great, who is currently the face of the sport. And for Pereira, he will have the chance to beat the man most consider the greatest of all time, and get a chance at becoming a three-division champ. If Jones defeats the Englishman and keeps his title, Pereira could fight him for it directly.

But even if Jones loses to the interim champ, Pereira beating ‘Bones’ would secure him a fight with Aspinall. All of this is to say that a Jones-Pereira fight at heavyweight makes too much sense to not happen. What do you think about Chael Sonnen’s defense of Covington for his Pereira-Jones prediction?