In the past year, Chael Sonnen has become one of the most popular faces in Mixed Martial Arts.
An accomplished wrestler, Sonnen found success during his career despite a weakness against submissions. Sonnen is perhaps best known for his ability to trash talk and hype up a fight, and became famous for his quotes in the months leading up to his fight against Anderson Silva.
Many people dislike Sonnen, and while everyone is entitled to their own opinion, they can’t deny his amazing talent.
In Sonnen’s bout with Silva, the biggest of his career to date, he took Silva to the limit. There were reports that Silva had a broken rib going into the fight, but afterward it was revealed that Sonnen broke Silva’s rib in the first round. Sonnen caught Anderson with some vicious shots, and landed takedowns in nearly every round. If Sonnen hadn’t been caught in a triangle in the fifth round, he would have likely won the fight via a 50-43 decision.
Sonnen didn’t get the job done, but he gave it his all. He may have lost the fight, but in the weeks that followed the loss turned out to be the least of his worries.
When it came out that Sonnen had failed his post-fight drug test, it was bad news for both Sonnen and the MMA community in general. It appeared that Sonnen and his doctor would clear his record in a meeting with the California State Athletic Commission, but the case seemed fishy. Sonnen’s suspension was lowered to six months, but suspicions on both sides remained after the trial was rescheduled several times.
Today, Sonnen met with the CSAC, who didn’t like what he had to say. His suspension was made indefinite, and according to Dana White, Sonnen is done in the UFC if the commission refuses to reinstate his license. Now that it appears Sonnen’s days in the UFC are done, let’s take a look back at some of the highlights.
Sonnen holds a career record of 25-11-1. While he never technically won a major championship in his career, Paulo Filho forfeited his belt to Sonnen in a rematch of a previous bout.
After starting his career 14-6-1, he was given a shot at Ronato Sobral at UFC 55, which was billed as a light heavyweight bout. In that bout, Sonnen dominated the first round standing up and landed multiple take downs, but in the second round was caught in a rear triangle choke.
After posting a 1-2 record in the UFC, Sonnen was cut from the promotion. After going on to win five matches in a row, he was rewarded with his title shot against Filho and went on to lose via submission.
After winning his next two fights, Sonnen headed back to the UFC where he lost to Damian Maia through with a triangle choke. Next, he defeated Dan Miller and Yushin Okami, which earned him a chance to face Nate Marquardt in a title eliminator bout. Marquardt wanted his rematch with Silva, but Sonnen wanted a shot as well.
The fight took place at UFC 109. Sonnen outclassed Marquardt in every aspect of the fight, leading to a literal beatdown. It was Sonnen’s best fight of his career, start to finish, and after getting the win and fight of the night honors, he appeared ready for his shot at taking down Silva.
Leading up to his title shot, Sonnen showed the personality and humor that made him one of the more popular UFC fighters of the past year. His fight against Marquardt earned him a great deal of respect in the MMA community, which he sadly went on to lose following his failed drug test.
Chael Sonnen made some mistakes, but so does everyone. Does he deserve special treatment? I won’t say he does, but in my personal opinion he’s paid his dues.
What does the future hold for Sonnen if UFC releases him? With his athletic ability and hilarious personality, I could see pro wrestling in his future. If he wants to stick with legitimate fighting, going to Japan or signing with M-1 global aren’t out of the question.
Sonnen has a few solid possibilites. He may indeed decide to retire and work as a trainer, but whatever Sonnen does, I’m sure he will do it well.
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