Chael Sonnen believes the UFC is punishing former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones by keeping him under contract with the promotion.

Sonnen and Jones were former rivals and even fought once in the Octagon, with Jones winning by TKO back in 2013 after the two coached The Ultimate Fighter. Last week, Jones was arrested in Las Vegas on charges of domestic battery and damaging a police vehicle. It has led to calls from some fans and media for the UFC to release Jones from his contract.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Sonnen explained why releasing Jones is a bad idea. As far as Sonnen goes, it’s more of a punishment for Jones to keep him under contract.

“If you want Jon Jones cut my next question is, why? That answer would be obvious, to hurt him. To punish him, right? If you want to hurt him and/or punish him, are you sure that you want him cut? If you release a guy, you have no control over that guy. And you can attempt to guess what the market will bear. But if you still have him under contract, you will control that answer. And if you release Jon Jones with the spirit of hurting him in mind, you see where it starts to become a problem,” Sonnen said (h/t MMAMania.com’s Ryan Harkness). “Since the night Jon fought Dominick Reyes, they haven’t handed him a paycheck. In all fairness, that’s a big punishment. You economically sanction somebody, for goodness sake, world powers do that to each other. It is that effective, it is that damaging. So if the idea of releasing Jon is coming from a standpoint of ‘I want to punish him, I want to stick it to him.”

Do you agree with Chael Sonnen that the UFC is punishing Jon Jones by keeping him under contract with the organization?