13-Second Finishes And False Promises, Sonnen Relives Wild Early Days Of Career

It’s not so glamourous being a gangster.

Any longtime MMA fan remembers where they were the night of Aug. 7, 2010.

As a freshman in high school, I was hunkered down at home with my dad and some friends for the big UFC middleweight title fight main event atop UFC 117. Freshly into my fandom that began about a year and a half prior, I’d become familiar with the Michael Jordan-esque nature of Anderson Silva. No matter the challenger, they all appeared to be hopeless against “The Spider.”

That was until West Linn, Oregon’s Chael Sonnen came along and turned the world upside down for one unforgettable night.

The first Sonnen fight I watched was his title shot-earning performance against former title challenger Nate Marquart at UFC 109 in February of that year. Dominant and imposing wrestling styles always captivated me, and still do. When someone tells you what they’re going to do and you still can’t stop it, that’s just a badass ability to have. Something about the style was extra cool to see as a kid who was obsessed with professional wrestling before he found real fighting.

Could Sonnen really be the one to dethrone Silva? It felt hard to believe, but Sonnen displayed the confidence in himself that gave spectators confidence in him. As soon as the fight began, he proved he could and it was a rollercoaster ride of — mostly one-sided — chaos for four and a half rounds. Unfortunately for him, it still ended like all others before him: A Silva victory, this time by fifth-round Hail Mary triangle armbar submission.

I couldn’t have been anymore hooked on the sport after UFC 117 and needed to see the rematch as soon as possible. Still figuring out all the ins and outs of the sport, I didn’t realize how long progressions can take, whether with simple fight bookings or drug test suspension lengths, and if they could be contested or not. Therefore, prompting me to check Google for Sonnen updates every single day for who knows how long.

“The American Gangster” became far and away my favorite fighter and I couldn’t wait for the rematch. Throughout the two years it took to get there, Sonnen won his battles against Brian Stann and Michael Bisping while I routinely went on marathons of his fight library on YouTube or wherever footage was findable.

In three weekends, Sonnen’s historic first battle with Silva will officially become a part of the UFC Hall of Fame. Two weekends after they run it back for a trilogy boxing match in Sao Paulo, Brazil this Saturday night (June 15, 2024). Fortunately, I was once again afforded the privilege to be graced by the presence of the man himself one day before he flew out of the country.

After 49 professional MMA fights and ahead of his return from a five-year retirement, the timing along with the Hall of Fame made a trip down memory lane fitting.

Starting from the beginning, Sonnen made his MMA debut in May 1997 when he defeated Ben Hailey by unanimous decision in a seven-minute fight. He didn’t have his sophomore outing until March 2002 when he fought a fellow future middleweight star, Jason “Mayhem” Miller.

“I went up and fought a gentleman, Ben Hailey, in the state of Washington,” Sonnen told MMA Mania. “I was a freshman or sophomore in college. We went up to do it and you didn’t even practice it. I belonged to this Muay Thai gym, but even in Muay Thai practice, we didn’t touch one another ever. Never. Never would you touch each other. You didn’t need mouthpieces or headgear because you weren’t touching each other.

“The coach came in one day and he said, ‘Hey, who wants to fight? We’re going up to these fights. We didn’t know the rules or what it was gonna be or anything like this. So, I went and did that one match but I was still in college so there was just a gap until I got out, I suppose.”

Sonnen won both of those fights by unanimous decision with the latter resulting in the famous ring-breaking slam hit on Mayhem. One year later the “Gangster” had amassed seven fights and was off to Japan for a shot in one of MMA’s godfather promotions, Pancrase.

Words haven’t been the kindest towards Japanese MMA from Sonnen over the years, particularly towards the since-defunct PRIDE FC. Admittedly, Sonnen admits it was more because of his inability to participate on those stages. Ultimately, he went 0-1-1 in his two Pancrase bouts, first drawing with Akihiro Gono then dropping a majority decision to Keiichiro Yamamiya, the only decision loss of Sonnen’s career.

“It was so difficult,” Sonnen said of fighting in Pancrase and Japan. “I would spend — at some point in my day every day I would go to practice, and I would search out fight promotions and search for a contact button and send them emails and try to get fights. It was so incredibly difficult to get matches back then. So, when I finally got somebody’s interest from Pancrase, I had to name-drop Randy Couture. I somehow hinted that he would come along or be cornering me. Something like that. I just know Randy got brought up and it worked.

“They went for it. It was my way in, but they were only bringing in Americans who were under contract with Phyllis Lee. They connected me with Phyllis Lee, who I had never met, she sends me like an absolute life-committing contract. It is the single worst contract I have read. Not to mention, it wasn’t easy to read. She sends a contract that’s several pages, it’s 20 percent, anything you do. We may never speak, we’ve never spoken at this point. You’re gonna sign with me, you’re never getting out of it, is how it felt reading that. So, I did not do that but I kept working, kept staying on ‘em and I finally got an opportunity to go and they had me back [a second time].”

Sonnen recalled being accompanied by his now-fellow UFC Hall of Famer Dan Henderson for the Japan journeys as the legend cornered him. At the time, Henderson became a big deal and champion in PRIDE where he made his name before multiple runs in the UFC.

The timing would have led someone to think Sonnen could have had a much different career in hindsight if he made it to PRIDE like his mentors. He would have liked to, but the stars simply never aligned and the hurdles, sometimes questionable in legitimacy, were too high to leap.

“PRIDE had a tryout in LA that turned out to be nothing more than a marketing scam,” Sonnen said. “I was so rubbed the wrong way because it was overwhelmingly successful. I want to say it was on the campus of UCLA (University of California Los Angeles). It was a college campus somewhere. It was huge and you got guys like me who are flying in, scraping money together to get out there to go to this thing to impress the bosses.

“They gave some kind of award and I got it. Matt Hume, Bas Rutten, some other guys were the ones to judge that, and essentially I won the tryout, nothing. Not even an email saying, ‘Hey, thank you for coming.’ It was an absolute scam, and that’s a scumbag thing to do to hungry fighters that are trying to get by.”

Between Sonnen’s two fights in Japan, he had arguably his greatest career highlight finish in terms of the move itself. In only 40 seconds, Sonnen pulled off a flying knee knockout against Justin Bailey in April 2004.

I’ve scoured the internet for footage of this fight because that’s just something I have to see before I die, if possible. A flying knee? From Sonnen? In 40 seconds? I don’t care who it’s against, that doesn’t register, but I love it. This was a story I’d been wanting to hear for over a decade.

“We were in a four-man tournament,” Sonnen said. “I drive in, there’s no contracts, the promoters really had no way to know we were gonna show up. Place is sold out, me and some buddies jumped in a car, we stopped in a hotel one night, we end up making it the rest of the way. The sport was in a different place back then. I don’t think there was a way in, I surely don’t remember one. There definitely was not a commission, wrapping of your hands, gloves were optional.

“My flying knee, which is the one of my career, is like everybody else’s flying knee, which is I never practiced it. You can’t. It’s all in your mind. I had a belief that if you change elevation, you could get a fellow wrestler to pause and I could jump up the middle. Bailey was a champion wrestler. I fainted, he paused, and I jumped up the middle.

“He went down and you’re supposed to finish. You can kick a downed opponent as long as it’s not to the head. I remember he went down, I kicked him, and I feel like a scumbag to this day. I actually had a woman say to me — she was a big supporter of mine — she pulled me aside and said, ‘Hey, man, I was really disappointed when you kicked him.’ I was, too! I didn’t know he was staying down though.”

Thanks to the tournament format, Sonnen was supposed to fight later that night against Tim McKenzie, who won his fight on the other side of the bracket against the future Bellator light heavyweight champion Emanuel Newton. However, MMA is kind of taxing. McKenzie’s fight wound up tougher than Sonnen’s damage-dealing acrobatics, and he won a decision that left him unable to fight again.

Fate brought Sonnen and McKenzie back together under even crazier circumstances. Que Bodog Fight and a luxurious trip to Costa Rica. Sonnen only has one other sub-one-minute victory in his career and it came against McKenzie on the beach in 13 seconds via d’arce choke.

That’s the official ruling of the bout, anyway. It was probably the happiest you’ll ever see Sonnen in a public setting, especially after a fight. It was for good reason.

“Tim was younger than me,” Sonnen said. “I needed to win that match and he didn’t. He went on and had this awesome career, but they bring you out, we don’t know what’s going on. It’s for a fight, when you get there there’s fighters everywhere. There were 66 fighters, 33 fights. They reveal to us once we’re there that this is gonna be televised and to not repeat the outcome [on the internet].

“We’re out there a week early. We’re making commercials, we’re building this thing up. It was going to be a month-long thing [with the 66 fights]. They set the ring up on the beach. Well, the sun came down so hot that one guy got taken down and burned his back. Everybody that went in this area of the ring was screaming in pain, but one guy actually took his opponent down to hold him down by submission with the guy screaming in pain as it’s burning.

“They’re doing like three to four days of fights,” he continued. “Tim and I are the last day. I’m in bed, we’re gonna fight later in the afternoon. They come pound on my door, it’s in the morning — one of my things on fight day, it doesn’t matter what time, I just stay in bed all day. Even if I’m awake. I think I‘m conserving energy. At any rate, it’s 9 am, he’s on his way to the ring and I’ve got to get over to the place, get wrapped up, get my gloves on, find my cup, find my mouthpiece.

“All of these things happen and his rib went out. I tripped him and I thought I got a submission, it’s listed as one, but when he went down his rib went out. Imagine that relief where I’m sitting out there for a week, 66 fights, I watch 65 of ‘em. Get woken up, gotta go to this thing that’s ultra stressful. Now it’s not for me because I didn’t have any time to stress about it. It was a pretty cool moment. That was fun.”

There truly isn’t any other sport remotely similar to MMA when it comes to the depth and variety of stories. When you think you’ve seen it or heard it all, there’s something new and absurd that comes out of nowhere. That’s why we as fans, and the fighters, keep coming back, right?

If the third time is the charm for Sonnen against Silva in Brazil, in a boxing match, it would only be fitting. And, well, you know … just one more for the bad guy.