(Video courtesy of Flo Wrestling)
Chael Sonnen did a seminar back in November for some youth at the Northeast Duals’ “MMA Fest,” held at Hudson Valley Community College in New York where he gave an inspiring speech about how to match intensity with an opponent.
“One thing on intensity, and I hope that we’re all old enough that I can tell this without people taking it for something that it’s not, but when we’re being intense and we’re out there and we’re competing — wrestling, fighting, MMA, whatever it is — I need to match my partner’s intensity. I can’t let him come in and bully me,” Sonnen explained. “I can’t let him pick on me. For some of you younger guys, eventually you’ll be getting into high school as freshman and these older guys are gonna push you around a little bit. Then you’ll go back and do it to the next group. It’s just the way that it works. You get to college and it’s intimidating because the intensity’s a little different. You gotta match ‘em.”
Sounds like good advice so far. Maybe Chael does have a career in politics if he can ever get his criminal record expunged by an outgoing president. Let’s listen to what other sage advice the Gangster from America has for the youth of the nation .
“If they go first, you match ‘em instantly. If a guy clubs you, you club him as hard or harder and you do it right then. Don’t wait a minute and come back with it. He clubs you, you club him right then [and] he’ll stop doin’ it,” Chael said. “Okay? He will stop…if you’re in a match and the guy gets intense, you get intense right there, right then. As hard or harder right now and he’ll stop doin’ it. Okay? One-up him.”
It sounds like Chael practices what he preaches. He is the king of “one-upmanship.” He must be talking about smack talk on the mats — a craft he’s taken to the next level. Maybe he’ll share some of his secrets with these aspiring wrestlers and fighters.
“If he slaps you, punch him. If he punches you, kick him. If he kicks you, stab him. If he stabs you, shoot him,” he stated flatly. “If he shoots you, you go kill his family. You guys get the point there?”
Wait, what? Rewind that. Did he just tell them to stab and shoot their opponents or did I mishear, “slap their wives on the asses?” Imagine your kids coming home from that seminar and you catch one of them making a shiv in case they need to “one-up” someone that kicked them on the playground. That isn’t cool, especially since he mentioned there were some primary school-aged kids at the seminar.
In Chael’s defense, he did mention afterwards that he doesn’t really mean to stab or shoot anyone, but kids are impressionable. I’m thinking the pro-wrestling schtick sometimes takes on a life of its own and he blurts out whatever might get a reaction, regardless of the consequences.
“One-up him and you do it right then. Don’t let him push you around. It’s a practice…it’s a mindset… of course I’m not talkin’ about hurting someone, but what I’m talking about is we gotta match ‘em and we gotta do it right now, okay? You can’t go, ‘Aw, this guy slapped me on Tuesday, so on Friday I’m gonna get even with him,’ okay? If he clubs you, you club him right back,” Sonnen confusingly explained. “That’ll keep everything level and that will up everybody’s intensity.”
The speech actually could have been a classic, had he not added the questionable part in the middle about stabbing, shooting and killing an opponent’s family. Imagine A-Rod telling a group of kids to bash someone’s skull in with a bat for throwing a brush-back pitch. It wouldn’t reflect well on his team or the sport of baseball.
Hopefully Bob Reilly and the Culinary Union don’t latch onto this one.
Here’s a less disturbing talk Chael gave the group about positioning:
(Video courtesy of Flo Wrestling)