Tag: Chael Sonnen videos

The Bad Guy Is Back: Chael Sonnen Cuts Promo for ‘Battlegrounds MMA One’

Battlegrounds MMA is hosting an old-school one-night eight-man tournament this Friday at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, featuring Jesse Taylor, Cody McKenzie, and blah blah blah that part’s not really important. What’s important is that the $19.95 PPV will be commentated by semi-disgraced UFC star Chael Sonnen and pro-wrestling legend Jim Ross. The fighters might bring the steak, but brother, Sonnen and Ross will provide the sizzle.

Above, Sonnen hypes the event in his usual silver-tongued style. Below, Jim Ross commentates video games, just because it’s hilarious.

Battlegrounds MMA is hosting an old-school one-night eight-man tournament this Friday at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, featuring Jesse Taylor, Cody McKenzie, and blah blah blah that part’s not really important. What’s important is that the $19.95 PPV will be commentated by semi-disgraced UFC star Chael Sonnen and pro-wrestling legend Jim Ross. The fighters might bring the steak, but brother, Sonnen and Ross will provide the sizzle.

Above, Sonnen hypes the event in his usual silver-tongued style. Below, Jim Ross commentates video games, just because it’s hilarious.

Metamoris 4 Videos: Andre Galvao Chokes Out Chael Sonnen, Josh Barnett Submits Dean Lister

(Props: GrapLandTeam Nalchik. Get it while it lasts.)

Chael Sonnen‘s headlining appearance at Metamoris 4 against Andre Galvao on Saturday ended pretty much how we expected: with Sonnen tapping to a far, far superior grappler.

From the opening seconds of the match — when Sonnen took Galvao to the mat with a virtually undefended single-leg takedown — Sonnen’s strategy was to remain in top position and defend whatever Galvao was throwing at him from below. Outside of a cut that Sonnen sustained near his right eye, possibly due to an early clash of heads, the American Gangster did well to keep himself out of danger for the first ten minutes of the match.

Eventually, Galvao gets tired of playing around, and sweeps his way onto Sonnen’s back (see: 13:38-14:44 in the video above). From there, Galvao is relentless in his attack on Sonnen’s neck, looking to sink a rear-naked choke despite Sonnen’s game defenses. But it’s only a matter of time before Galvao advances to checkmate, and Sonnen taps at the video’s 17:28 mark, while a pleased Anderson Silva celebrates in the crowd. Watch until the end to hear Sonnen cut the obligatory pro-wrestling style promo before exiting the building.

After the jump: The Metamoris heavyweight championship bout between Josh Barnett and Dean Lister, which Barnett won via scarf-hold choke with just ten seconds left in the match.


(Props: GrapLandTeam Nalchik. Get it while it lasts.)

Chael Sonnen‘s headlining appearance at Metamoris 4 against Andre Galvao on Saturday ended pretty much how we expected: with Sonnen tapping to a far, far superior grappler.

From the opening seconds of the match — when Sonnen took Galvao to the mat with a virtually undefended single-leg takedown — Sonnen’s strategy was to remain in top position and defend whatever Galvao was throwing at him from below. Outside of a cut that Sonnen sustained near his right eye, possibly due to an early clash of heads, the American Gangster did well to keep himself out of danger for the first ten minutes of the match.

Eventually, Galvao gets tired of playing around, and sweeps his way onto Sonnen’s back (see: 13:38-14:44 in the video above). From there, Galvao is relentless in his attack on Sonnen’s neck, looking to sink a rear-naked choke despite Sonnen’s game defenses. But it’s only a matter of time before Galvao advances to checkmate, and Sonnen taps at the video’s 17:28 mark, while a pleased Anderson Silva celebrates in the crowd. Watch until the end to hear Sonnen cut the obligatory pro-wrestling style promo before exiting the building.

After the jump: The Metamoris heavyweight championship bout between Josh Barnett and Dean Lister, which Barnett won via scarf-hold choke with just ten seconds left in the match.

Chael Sonnen Announces His Retirement From MMA in the Wake of Drug Test Failure

(Props: UFC on FOX)

Chael Sonnen — the American Gangster, the Bad Guy, the most entertaining talker and most unabashed liar in the history of mixed martial arts — has announced his retirement after sixteen and a half years of professional MMA competition. Sonnen broke the news on this evening’s installment of UFC Tonight. As the 37-year-old former middleweight title contender explained, he planned to continue using the estrogen blockers he had just tested positive for, in order to get his health back to normal without testosterone replacement therapy. And so, he’s taken himself out of the game.

You can watch Sonnen’s full retirement statement above, which naturally contains his usual massaging of the truth and dubious pleas of ignorance regarding the athletic commission’s rules. The important stuff is below…

“I want to talk directly to the thousands and thousands of fans who have supported me throughout my career. Guys, I had a great time. And there are so many people to thank, from the leadership of the UFC, to the people here at FOX that have given us such a wonderful platform and opportunity.

“I want to thank my coach, Clayton Hires, who has stood by me through thick and thin, who taught me how to work hard, who taught me about discipline. I want to thank Roy Pittman and Dave Sanville, the coaches that I first had when I very first walked into a wrestling room. And these guys have been great.

“I want to thank Bill Brady of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, a man I am proud to call my friend. I got a second wind in fighting, I got to come back, and it was solely due to Bill Brady, and I’m very proud to know him and that our paths have crossed.


(Props: UFC on FOX)

Chael Sonnen — the American Gangster, the Bad Guy, the most entertaining talker and most unabashed liar in the history of mixed martial arts — has announced his retirement after sixteen and a half years of professional MMA competition. Sonnen broke the news on this evening’s installment of UFC Tonight. As the 37-year-old former middleweight title contender explained, he planned to continue using the estrogen blockers he had just tested positive for, in order to get his health back to normal without testosterone replacement therapy. And so, he’s taken himself out of the game.

You can watch Sonnen’s full retirement statement above, which naturally contains his usual massaging of the truth and dubious pleas of ignorance regarding the athletic commission’s rules. The important stuff is below…

“I want to talk directly to the thousands and thousands of fans who have supported me throughout my career. Guys, I had a great time. And there are so many people to thank, from the leadership of the UFC, to the people here at FOX that have given us such a wonderful platform and opportunity.

“I want to thank my coach, Clayton Hires, who has stood by me through thick and thin, who taught me how to work hard, who taught me about discipline. I want to thank Roy Pittman and Dave Sanville, the coaches that I first had when I very first walked into a wrestling room. And these guys have been great.

“I want to thank Bill Brady of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, a man I am proud to call my friend. I got a second wind in fighting, I got to come back, and it was solely due to Bill Brady, and I’m very proud to know him and that our paths have crossed.

“I don’t want to be out of bounds, I want to stay within compliance. But in the three years that I have studied these rules, I’ve gotten conflicting reports and I’m no closer to understanding them now than I’ve ever been. Look, my health is going to come first, my family will always come first. And someday, I will not have the title of fighter. I will lose that title. But I will never lose the title of parent and father, that is what’s very important to me. And at this time I would like to officially announce my retirement from competitive mixed martial arts.

“I am officially done. I will not step foot in that Octagon again.”

As with all bold statements made by Sonnen, maybe we shouldn’t interpret this as the gospel truth. Fighters have a tendency to go back on sudden retirement claims as soon as the itch to compete strikes them again. Then again, maybe I’m just in denial about the loss of one of MMA’s most lovable villains. More to come tomorrow…

VIDEO: Wanderlei Silva Threatens to Leave ‘TUF Brazil’ Because Chael Sonnen Won’t Apologize to Him

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

I almost feel bad for the cast of TUF Brazil 3 — whoever they are — because all the squabbling/fake brawling between coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva is stealing so much of the spotlight. Then again, do I care about regional-level Brazilian prospects fighting in a reality-TV tournament? I do not. Do I have any plans to subscribe to Fight Pass to watch this show and others like it? No sir. At all, like ever? No no no.

So here’s something else that happened during filming: Wanderlei Silva demanded an apology for all of the nasty things Chael Sonnen said about Brazilian people in the lead-up to his first fight against Anderson Silva. Sonnen refused. Silva threatened to leave the show if Sonnen didn’t apologize. Sonnen refused some more, and suddenly we were at an impasse. Here’s what Chael had to say afterwards about Silva’s failed power-play:

“He is so stupid, I’m ashamed of him. He is a checkers player. In checkers you play one move at a time. If you are a chess player, you have to guess what I’m going to do and plan your next move, you have to be three or four moves ahead. He is so stupid, and I’m not trying to offend him, stupid is a word for a real thing. He comes and say: ‘the show stops if you don’t apologize for what you said about Brazil’. He did what a real checkers player would do. He would never imagine that I would refuse to apologize. When I refused, all that he could do was give up. He put himself in check, I didn’t do that. The show stopped and was almost over. They had to call Dana White and the producers. I begged him to come back and he didn’t. So he called for a cab and the cab came. One producer had to stop him in the cab and make him come back…


(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

I almost feel bad for the cast of TUF Brazil 3 — whoever they are — because all the squabbling/fake brawling between coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva is stealing so much of the spotlight. Then again, do I care about regional-level Brazilian prospects fighting in a reality-TV tournament? I do not. Do I have any plans to subscribe to Fight Pass to watch this show and others like it? No sir. At all, like ever? No no no.

So here’s something else that happened during filming: Wanderlei Silva demanded an apology for all of the nasty things Chael Sonnen said about Brazilian people in the lead-up to his first fight against Anderson Silva. Sonnen refused. Silva threatened to leave the show if Sonnen didn’t apologize. Sonnen refused some more, and suddenly we were at an impasse. Here’s what Chael had to say afterwards about Silva’s failed power-play:

“He is so stupid, I’m ashamed of him. He is a checkers player. In checkers you play one move at a time. If you are a chess player, you have to guess what I’m going to do and plan your next move, you have to be three or four moves ahead. He is so stupid, and I’m not trying to offend him, stupid is a word for a real thing. He comes and say: ‘the show stops if you don’t apologize for what you said about Brazil’. He did what a real checkers player would do. He would never imagine that I would refuse to apologize. When I refused, all that he could do was give up. He put himself in check, I didn’t do that. The show stopped and was almost over. They had to call Dana White and the producers. I begged him to come back and he didn’t. So he called for a cab and the cab came. One producer had to stop him in the cab and make him come back…

“The producers told me that maybe I should apologize. I said: “No, I can’t. It’s not an ego thing, I don’t blame myself for any of that. I can’t apologize because they will be just meaningless words. I’m happy because I did that. I thought it was fun and I could do it all again today.” Wanderlei asked me why I couldn’t apologize and I said it worked, I wanted to fight against Anderson Silva, I got the fight and I liked saying what I said. It was fun. I could do it again today. Wanderlei was so angry, he looked like a cartoon character with smoke coming from his ears.”

My favorite part of the video above is 1:55-2:11, where Chael tries to explain his position to Silva, and Wandy just gets more confused and more angry. Honestly, this whole thing is so great, I hope the TUF Brazil 3 producers do the right thing and cut out all the meaningless fight footage to make more time for the stuff that’s actually entertaining, like Chael mocking Wanderlei Silva’s intellect, and Wanderlei not signing his bout agreement out of spite, and Chael’s wife cooking him dinner in a Brazilian mansion. Everything else is just filler.

VIDEO: Wanderlei Silva Threatens to Leave ‘TUF Brazil’ Because Chael Sonnen Won’t Apologize to Him

(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

I almost feel bad for the cast of TUF Brazil 3 — whoever they are — because all the squabbling/fake brawling between coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva is stealing so much of the spotlight. Then again, do I care about regional-level Brazilian prospects fighting in a reality-TV tournament? I do not. Do I have any plans to subscribe to Fight Pass to watch this show and others like it? No sir. At all, like ever? No no no.

So here’s something else that happened during filming: Wanderlei Silva demanded an apology for all of the nasty things Chael Sonnen said about Brazilian people in the lead-up to his first fight against Anderson Silva. Sonnen refused. Silva threatened to leave the show if Sonnen didn’t apologize. Sonnen refused some more, and suddenly we were at an impasse. Here’s what Chael had to say afterwards about Silva’s failed power-play:

“He is so stupid, I’m ashamed of him. He is a checkers player. In checkers you play one move at a time. If you are a chess player, you have to guess what I’m going to do and plan your next move, you have to be three or four moves ahead. He is so stupid, and I’m not trying to offend him, stupid is a word for a real thing. He comes and say: ‘the show stops if you don’t apologize for what you said about Brazil’. He did what a real checkers player would do. He would never imagine that I would refuse to apologize. When I refused, all that he could do was give up. He put himself in check, I didn’t do that. The show stopped and was almost over. They had to call Dana White and the producers. I begged him to come back and he didn’t. So he called for a cab and the cab came. One producer had to stop him in the cab and make him come back…


(Props: YouTube.com/UFC)

I almost feel bad for the cast of TUF Brazil 3 — whoever they are — because all the squabbling/fake brawling between coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva is stealing so much of the spotlight. Then again, do I care about regional-level Brazilian prospects fighting in a reality-TV tournament? I do not. Do I have any plans to subscribe to Fight Pass to watch this show and others like it? No sir. At all, like ever? No no no.

So here’s something else that happened during filming: Wanderlei Silva demanded an apology for all of the nasty things Chael Sonnen said about Brazilian people in the lead-up to his first fight against Anderson Silva. Sonnen refused. Silva threatened to leave the show if Sonnen didn’t apologize. Sonnen refused some more, and suddenly we were at an impasse. Here’s what Chael had to say afterwards about Silva’s failed power-play:

“He is so stupid, I’m ashamed of him. He is a checkers player. In checkers you play one move at a time. If you are a chess player, you have to guess what I’m going to do and plan your next move, you have to be three or four moves ahead. He is so stupid, and I’m not trying to offend him, stupid is a word for a real thing. He comes and say: ‘the show stops if you don’t apologize for what you said about Brazil’. He did what a real checkers player would do. He would never imagine that I would refuse to apologize. When I refused, all that he could do was give up. He put himself in check, I didn’t do that. The show stopped and was almost over. They had to call Dana White and the producers. I begged him to come back and he didn’t. So he called for a cab and the cab came. One producer had to stop him in the cab and make him come back…

“The producers told me that maybe I should apologize. I said: “No, I can’t. It’s not an ego thing, I don’t blame myself for any of that. I can’t apologize because they will be just meaningless words. I’m happy because I did that. I thought it was fun and I could do it all again today.” Wanderlei asked me why I couldn’t apologize and I said it worked, I wanted to fight against Anderson Silva, I got the fight and I liked saying what I said. It was fun. I could do it again today. Wanderlei was so angry, he looked like a cartoon character with smoke coming from his ears.”

My favorite part of the video above is 1:55-2:11, where Chael tries to explain his position to Silva, and Wandy just gets more confused and more angry. Honestly, this whole thing is so great, I hope the TUF Brazil 3 producers do the right thing and cut out all the meaningless fight footage to make more time for the stuff that’s actually entertaining, like Chael mocking Wanderlei Silva’s intellect, and Wanderlei not signing his bout agreement out of spite, and Chael’s wife cooking him dinner in a Brazilian mansion. Everything else is just filler.

Wanderlei Silva Angrily Confronts Chael Sonnen, Vlogs About It Afterwards

(Props: wandfightteam)

Confrontations are to be expected at the Mr. Olympia Expo. At least, that seems like a rational assumption when you pack an area with men competing against each other, jacked to their gills on various forms of illicit testosterone and innumerable other chemicals. Maybe it generally results in a flex-off, or two behemoths bellowing in their guttural voices as they proceed to lay waste to each other like a pair of elephant seals. In short, it’s a great venue for empty alpha-male posturing, which made it perfect for the WWE-style confrontation that Wanderlei Silva arranged to psyche out his hypothetical future opponent (and #1 Least Favorite Person) Chael Sonnen.

We first caught wind of this incident last night when Larry Pepe released a highly pixelated video — apparently captured on the camera phone from his 1989 Motorola DynaTAC — of Silva being restrained from assaulting (but not from yelling at) Sonnen, who is more than happy to return verbal fire. It’s almost impossible to ascertain what was said from that, unless someone out there can translate 144p, but it was reasonable to assume that they did not exchange pleasantries.

Fortunately, Wanderlei provided some clarification when he posted his latest batshit video blog concerning the incident. In it, we see exactly what was said between the two — there’s some naughty language involved, if you can believe it, as well as a substantial amount of finger pointing courtesy of the Axe Murderer, who is convinced that he saw fear in Chael’s eyes. Given that Sonnen is still scheduled to fight Rashad Evans in November, it’s going to be a while before this match gets made, if it does at all. That said, hopefully the UFC can put to rest the “will they?”/”won’t they?” simmering tension between the two, and let them have at it in the Octagon. There’s only so much we can take of Wanderlei Silva screaming at us over heavy metal guitar-shredding before we begin to mentally snap.

– George Shunick


(Props: wandfightteam)

Confrontations are to be expected at the Mr. Olympia Expo. At least, that seems like a rational assumption when you pack an area with men competing against each other, jacked to their gills on various forms of illicit testosterone and innumerable other chemicals. Maybe it generally results in a flex-off, or two behemoths bellowing in their guttural voices as they proceed to lay waste to each other like a pair of elephant seals. In short, it’s a great venue for empty alpha-male posturing, which made it perfect for the WWE-style confrontation that Wanderlei Silva arranged to psyche out his hypothetical future opponent (and #1 Least Favorite Person) Chael Sonnen.

We first caught wind of this incident last night when Larry Pepe released a highly pixelated video — apparently captured on the camera phone from his 1989 Motorola DynaTAC — of Silva being restrained from assaulting (but not from yelling at) Sonnen, who is more than happy to return verbal fire. It’s almost impossible to ascertain what was said from that, unless someone out there can translate 144p, but it was reasonable to assume that they did not exchange pleasantries.

Fortunately, Wanderlei provided some clarification when he posted his latest batshit video blog concerning the incident. In it, we see exactly what was said between the two — there’s some naughty language involved, if you can believe it, as well as a substantial amount of finger pointing courtesy of the Axe Murderer, who is convinced that he saw fear in Chael’s eyes. Given that Sonnen is still scheduled to fight Rashad Evans in November, it’s going to be a while before this match gets made, if it does at all. That said, hopefully the UFC can put to rest the “will they?”/”won’t they?” simmering tension between the two, and let them have at it in the Octagon. There’s only so much we can take of Wanderlei Silva screaming at us over heavy metal guitar-shredding before we begin to mentally snap.

– George Shunick