Craig Jones Responds to Steveson’s Pull Out
Craig Jones is doing his final press tour as CJI 2 goes live this weekend. The unfortunate news that he has to address is Gable Steveson pulling out of their match just days before the event.
Jones admitted on the Mac Life podcast that he had his suspicions that Steveson would look for a way out.
I had my doubts the whole time. I really should have put more thought into the backup plan. We wanted to do the Gable match because, like the Gabby match, it transcends jiu-jitsu and lures people into watching the real jiu-jitsu, and hopefully they stay and pay attention to more of the real jiu-jitsu stuff.
Gable was the person I thought we could do that with, but Gable really put no effort into it. I think he collaborated on three posts.
He put no effort in. We have to put in a lot of effort to promote.” -Craig Jones.
Photo Owned By Mac Life podcast
When Craig Started to Worry
One of the first signs that Gable Steveson didn’t care about the event was when his management tried to book him in the Dirty Boxing event that took place last night, which was just two days before the event.
Craig attributed it to stupidity on his part for not seeing the signs that Steveson didn’t care about the event.
“Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity, I think therein lies the problem.
I will say that his management did try to book him for a Dirty Boxing match two days before the event, which really started to concern me that they thought that was a great idea. It really showed the value they had for our event.”-Jones.
When Craig was truly concerned that Steveson was going to pull out was when he booked himself for his MMA debut at LFA just two weeks after CJI 2. This is when Gable just stopped communicating with Craig.
“When he booked the LFA fight two weeks after, that’s truly when I was deeply concerned.
Then he just stopped replying to me altogether. Usually, he’d be a bit slow on the response, but then he stopped replying to me altogether. Have some f*cking human decency and warn me, give me an idea.”- Craig Jones.
Chael Sonnen Steps In
Despite it being the last minute, Craig was able to find an opponent to take Gable’s place. In steps in “The Bad Guy” Chael Sonnen.
Chael will be facing Craig Jones in a rematch this Saturday. In their previous meeting at the 2017 ADCC event, Jones submitted Sonnen.
Now Sonnen is looking for payback. Jones praised Chael for his 0 Fs given attitude and coming into challenge him.
“Luckily, Chael Sonnen does whatever the f*ck he wants,” Jones said. “… That’s what I respect about Chael. Chael will do whatever the f*ck he wants to do. I firmly believe if anyone at the UFC, Dana White included, said, ‘Hey, do not do this,’ Chael would be like, ‘I will do whatever the f*ck I want to do.- Craig Jones.
Check out the full Mac Life podcast featuring Craig below.
Bobby is martial artist for almost 20 years with a BJJ black belt under Professor Sergio Miranda. He is also a karate black and former combat sports athlete, who loves all things grappling.