‘I Know Your Secret — Because I Got The Same One’

Imagine a grain of salt…

Former UFC middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen was able to finagle a 205-pound title shot for the UFC 159 pay-per-view (PPV) main event back in early 2013, thanks largely in part to a surprise coaching gig atop Season 17 of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF).

Sonnen came close to winning the title when then-champion Jon Jones broke his toe during the fight. Fortunately, referee Keith Peterson didn’t see the severity of the injury (take a look here) and “Bones” had time to seal the deal before the end of the opening frame.

In a recent conversation with The MMA Hour, helpfully transcribed by Nicole Bosco, Sonnen admitted to having “more juice than Tropicana,” which in turn helped him realize Jones was carrying the same secret — along with a staggering 11-inch advantage in reach.

“Heavens, no, no. Oh my god, Oh, Ariel, we know our own,” Sonnen told Ariel Helwani when asked if Jones was clean at UFC 159. “I had more juice than Tropicana and he pushed me around like a Mack truck. As soon as we locked up with each other, he’s pushing me backward before his big spinning elbow I remember thinking, ‘I know your secret because I got the same one.’ They tested but back then it was an IQ test, not a drug test. We didn’t have USADA. So they had to tell us when they would come and test.”

Sonnen was eventually pinched alongside Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort ahead of UFC 175 the following year (more on that fiasco here). Jones would join him in the not-so-exclusive PED club in summer 2017, which cost him a knockout victory over Daniel Cormier.

That said, Sonnen suggested Jones was clean for his Octagon return against heavyweight hurter Ciryl Gane, scheduled for the UFC 285 pay-per-view (PPV) main event this Sat. night (March 4, 2023) inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada (more on that fight here).

In other words, “officially cleared.”