Chael Sonnen: Conor McGregor’s media obligations have ‘crossed the line of being too much’

Few UFC fighters of the modern era possess the silver-tongued salesmanship of Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor. Much like Sonnen before him, McGregor’s rise to a featherweight title shot at UFC 189 was propelled, in part, by his skills on the microphone. Their styles may be different, but the comparisons between the two were always going to be inevitable, and Sonnen understands where those comparisons are coming from.

“He’s forging his own path,” Sonnen said of McGregor on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “He’s going in a slightly different direction, but no, there’s no insult there and I’m personally entertained by it. I thought he was great.

“I like that stuff. I can get into it and I appreciate it, and I know he’s got to work hard to do it.”

That last part is the part that people tend to forget, and it rings true in McGregor’s case. The popular Irishman has been a promotional powerhouse throughout the lead-up to UFC 189, fulfilling the lion’s share of the event’s endless media obligations across the U.S. while opponents Jose Aldo and, ultimately, Chad Mendes stayed home and readied themselves for a chance at UFC gold.

McGregor often calls the July 11 pay-per-view ‘the McGregor show,’ and that’s not far off from reality. But just a few years ago, Sonnen was in the same spot as the Irishman — navigating the waters of mega-event promotion while Anderson Silva clung to the shadows — and he can sympathize with how hard the job of one-man carnival barker can be once the stresses of fight week approach.

“It’s crossed the line of being too much,” Sonnen said of McGregor. “I mean, that’s just the reality of the situation. Athletes go out, we’re kind of programmed to say the same thing we think we’re supposed to say. It’s too much on Conor right now, and media will ask him that. ‘Is it too much?’ So, you know, you don’t want to put some of those things in your world. You want to deny them and keep them out so you can take care of business, but yeah, of course it’s too much. When a guy is on the opposite side of the country and he’s got three more stops before he can get home, he’s 22 pounds overweight, he’s nine days before a fight, and he’s running on two hours sleep because of all of it, it’s too much.”

With less than a week to go before UFC 189, McGregor is in the home stretch of an unprecedented promotional effort that spanned the majority of 2015. Much of that focus was on his original opponent, UFC featherweight champion Aldo, and it was a stunning success. Before Aldo withdrew from the contest last week with a broken rib, the event was on track to be one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year and easily the biggest payday of the Brazilian’s career. Had it stayed intact, the fight would’ve likely thrust Aldo into a level of stardom that has thus far eluded him, mirroring what Sonnen was able to accomplish with Silva.

“We both needed that dance partner,” Sonnen said. “Anderson was a very poorly drawing champion, and he was a fantastic fighter, and everybody respected him, but he didn’t have that base tuning in to watch him.

“Jose Aldo was in that same spot. The guy is an amazing talent and he’s a poor drawing champion. It’s a little bit confusing, but it’s not like making a batch of cookies, man. You throw all the right ingredients in, you’re not guaranteed that the recipe is going to work. There’s an ‘it factor’ in the business, and where Jose Aldo misses ‘it,’ I’m not totally sure because he is a fantastic talent, he’s a handsome dude, he’s been around a long time. He’s got all those things you throw in the pot, but the cookies just don’t turn out right. And this would’ve changed. Conor McGregor was that missing ‘it’ that batch needed.”

In that sense, Sonnen is surprised by Aldo’s decision to turn down UFC 189’s massive payday because of injury.

“I’m very surprised, business-wise,” Sonnen said. “Jose Aldo can’t do an interview where he doesn’t bitch about money. It’s been coming up for years now, he’s complaining about money. And this was the big money fight. This was the biggest money fight of his career, and it will never be back. He could get this fight again down the road, but it won’t have the build-up and it won’t have the same payday. So in that regard, it was a surprise.

“But if he really suffered a broken rib, man, you just can’t fight with that. It’s too tough. And let me tell you the underlying story here, and Jose has never brought this up, but he should. I’ve suffered rib injuries but I’ve never had a broken one. I’ve dislocated it and popped it, and even that, a big step down from broken, it hurts so bad. But you can’t really move. You can’t even fully breathe and take a deep breath of air.

“So the point is, how’s he going to make weight? How, if he can’t move around? And Jose Aldo is a big guy. He’s been talking about moving up to 155 pounds for a couple of years now. That’s how big he is. He’s not getting any smaller as time goes on. So when you’re that big and you can’t make weight, you can’t move to get the pounds off, there’s no way you can make the walk the following night in a championship contest. So I think that’s probably really the underlying story here. I haven’t heard Jose bring it up, but as a fellow athlete I think that’s what really happened.”

Few UFC fighters of the modern era possess the silver-tongued salesmanship of Chael Sonnen and Conor McGregor. Much like Sonnen before him, McGregor’s rise to a featherweight title shot at UFC 189 was propelled, in part, by his skills on the microphone. Their styles may be different, but the comparisons between the two were always going to be inevitable, and Sonnen understands where those comparisons are coming from.

“He’s forging his own path,” Sonnen said of McGregor on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “He’s going in a slightly different direction, but no, there’s no insult there and I’m personally entertained by it. I thought he was great.

“I like that stuff. I can get into it and I appreciate it, and I know he’s got to work hard to do it.”

That last part is the part that people tend to forget, and it rings true in McGregor’s case. The popular Irishman has been a promotional powerhouse throughout the lead-up to UFC 189, fulfilling the lion’s share of the event’s endless media obligations across the U.S. while opponents Jose Aldo and, ultimately, Chad Mendes stayed home and readied themselves for a chance at UFC gold.

McGregor often calls the July 11 pay-per-view ‘the McGregor show,’ and that’s not far off from reality. But just a few years ago, Sonnen was in the same spot as the Irishman — navigating the waters of mega-event promotion while Anderson Silva clung to the shadows — and he can sympathize with how hard the job of one-man carnival barker can be once the stresses of fight week approach.

“It’s crossed the line of being too much,” Sonnen said of McGregor. “I mean, that’s just the reality of the situation. Athletes go out, we’re kind of programmed to say the same thing we think we’re supposed to say. It’s too much on Conor right now, and media will ask him that. ‘Is it too much?’ So, you know, you don’t want to put some of those things in your world. You want to deny them and keep them out so you can take care of business, but yeah, of course it’s too much. When a guy is on the opposite side of the country and he’s got three more stops before he can get home, he’s 22 pounds overweight, he’s nine days before a fight, and he’s running on two hours sleep because of all of it, it’s too much.”

With less than a week to go before UFC 189, McGregor is in the home stretch of an unprecedented promotional effort that spanned the majority of 2015. Much of that focus was on his original opponent, UFC featherweight champion Aldo, and it was a stunning success. Before Aldo withdrew from the contest last week with a broken rib, the event was on track to be one of the biggest pay-per-views of the year and easily the biggest payday of the Brazilian’s career. Had it stayed intact, the fight would’ve likely thrust Aldo into a level of stardom that has thus far eluded him, mirroring what Sonnen was able to accomplish with Silva.

“We both needed that dance partner,” Sonnen said. “Anderson was a very poorly drawing champion, and he was a fantastic fighter, and everybody respected him, but he didn’t have that base tuning in to watch him.

“Jose Aldo was in that same spot. The guy is an amazing talent and he’s a poor drawing champion. It’s a little bit confusing, but it’s not like making a batch of cookies, man. You throw all the right ingredients in, you’re not guaranteed that the recipe is going to work. There’s an ‘it factor’ in the business, and where Jose Aldo misses ‘it,’ I’m not totally sure because he is a fantastic talent, he’s a handsome dude, he’s been around a long time. He’s got all those things you throw in the pot, but the cookies just don’t turn out right. And this would’ve changed. Conor McGregor was that missing ‘it’ that batch needed.”

In that sense, Sonnen is surprised by Aldo’s decision to turn down UFC 189’s massive payday because of injury.

“I’m very surprised, business-wise,” Sonnen said. “Jose Aldo can’t do an interview where he doesn’t bitch about money. It’s been coming up for years now, he’s complaining about money. And this was the big money fight. This was the biggest money fight of his career, and it will never be back. He could get this fight again down the road, but it won’t have the build-up and it won’t have the same payday. So in that regard, it was a surprise.

“But if he really suffered a broken rib, man, you just can’t fight with that. It’s too tough. And let me tell you the underlying story here, and Jose has never brought this up, but he should. I’ve suffered rib injuries but I’ve never had a broken one. I’ve dislocated it and popped it, and even that, a big step down from broken, it hurts so bad. But you can’t really move. You can’t even fully breathe and take a deep breath of air.

“So the point is, how’s he going to make weight? How, if he can’t move around? And Jose Aldo is a big guy. He’s been talking about moving up to 155 pounds for a couple of years now. That’s how big he is. He’s not getting any smaller as time goes on. So when you’re that big and you can’t make weight, you can’t move to get the pounds off, there’s no way you can make the walk the following night in a championship contest. So I think that’s probably really the underlying story here. I haven’t heard Jose bring it up, but as a fellow athlete I think that’s what really happened.”