Chael Sonnen says his career will be a failure to him should he lose to Anderson Silva on Saturday night in Brazil.
Sonnen is set to end his retirement to make his boxing debut in São Paulo, Brazil. Although Sonnen isn’t known for his striking, he says he’s taking this fight seriously as this is his final chance to defeat Silva.
Silva defeated Sonnen twice in MMA so this is the ‘Bad Guy’s’ final shot at defeating him. If Sonnen loses, he says his career will be a failure.
“There is nothing about this where I go, ‘Boxing is not quite my style,’” Sonnen said on his ESPN show “Good Guy/Bad Guy” with Daniel Cormier. “I’m going out there to beat this man, to fix my life, or I am going to go the rest of my days looking at my career as a miserable fail.”
If Chael Sonnen does defeat Anderson Silva it would be a massive upset and would allow the American to get the last laugh on the Brazilian.
Chael Sonnen putting respect to Anderson Silva aside
Although Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva were massive rivals in the UFC, the two have gotten friendly since both stepped away from MMA.
However, heading into their boxing fight, Sonnen says he’s putting that respect behind him.
“To be the one to get to sign off and close out his career, there is a certain appreciation,” Sonnen said. “But, before I go too nice guy, on you, the rules, starting with No. 1, is we damage each other. I know people like to be friendly and like to say we made up. They love to use the word ‘respect.’
“I will adhere to it, too because it seems like the gentlemanly thing to do, but I’m going to go damage him, which is what I’ve agreed to do. I’m going to put my body in there because he asked. He could have gotten any opponent he wanted. He apparently still wants to do damage to me. So, to act like everything is behind us would just be insincere.”
Sonnen last fought in 2019 when he suffered a TKO loss to Lyoto Machida.