Tag: Chael Sonnen

Chael Sonnen ‘Nominates’ Opponent For Jorge Masvidal’s UFC Return

One of the more unexpected MMA beefs in recent times has taken place between Chael Sonnen and Jorge Masvidal after both men criticized and called each out during appearances on The MMA Hour. At one stage, “Gamebred” was defending Ariel Helwani who had a heated exchange with Sonnen live on air and unsurprisingly, “The Bad […]

One of the more unexpected MMA beefs in recent times has taken place between Chael Sonnen and Jorge Masvidal after both men criticized and called each out during appearances on The MMA Hour. At one stage, “Gamebred” was defending Ariel Helwani who had a heated exchange with Sonnen live on air and unsurprisingly, “The Bad Guy” has continued to get the last word in.

There was even talk of them fighting although there was never anything set in stone even if they could have come face-to-face during a UFC event at one stage. In a recent post on X, Sonnen reignited the feud by coming up with a new idea.

At 47-years old, the former UFC title challenger doesn’t intend on making any kind of serious combat sports return though he did box Anderson Silva in an exhibition bout this past June. Masvidal, on the other hand, has recently stated that he will return to the UFC in April next year for a Miami event after initially retiring in 2023.

Sonnen suggested that rather than him stepping inside the Octagon with the former BMF champion, he would nominate a champion to be his tribute. That man who could welcome Masvidal back to the UFC would be none other than “The Welsh Gangster” Oban Elliott who has a great relationship with Sonnen.

Elliott has gone 3-0 inside the Octagon this year after earning his spot on the rankings via 2023’s season of the Contender Series. Wins at UFC 298, UFC 304 and UFC 309 have proved that the 26-year old doesn’t just walk the walk and talk the talk like his greatest inspiration, he can perform inside the Octagon as well.

After earning his first stoppage win in the promotion last time out, the welterweight contender answered Sonnen’s request.

Chael Sonnen Questions Ciryl Gane’s Commitment & UFC 310 Betting Favorite Status Over Alexander Volkov

At UFC 310 this weekend, another heavyweight could join the conversation that has been dominated by the division’s two titleholders in Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall. Whichever man gets the win, Ciryl Gane or Alexander Volkov will prove that they’re the next in line for a title shot even if the future of the division […]

At UFC 310 this weekend, another heavyweight could join the conversation that has been dominated by the division’s two titleholders in Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall. Whichever man gets the win, Ciryl Gane or Alexander Volkov will prove that they’re the next in line for a title shot even if the future of the division remains unclear right now.

Since losing to Aspinall in 2022, Volkov has put together a very strong run with four consecutive wins. Gane, on the other hand, hasn’t fought since his victory over Serghei Spivac in Paris last year which saw him bounce back from his loss to Jones at UFC 285.

The former interim champion has received some criticism since then over not wanting to pursue a fight with Aspinall and then turning down the interim title fight for UFC 304 in July due to a commitment he had made to filming a TV show for Netflix which has since released. Chael Sonnen believes that with these factors being considered, he doesn’t understand why “Bon Gamin” is a clear favorite according to the oddsmakers.

“Ciryl is a very heavy favorite. I, for the life of me, do not know why.

“I don’t mean to be negative towards Ciryl but I will share with you, nobody gets better at this sport by not doing it and Ciryl passed up on very big opportunities to go and film a movie that nobody’s ever heard of and most likely will never see but you can’t ever get around that. Every actor wants to be an athlete and every athlete wants to be an actor. There’s no way to ever work that out. So now Ciryl’s going to come in against largely a mere image of himself.”

Many would point to Gane being a big favorite due to the way that their first meeting played out. In June of 2021, the French fighter dominated against Volkov and won all five rounds on multiple scorecards to earn his sixth consecutive win inside the Octagon.

Sonnen, however, believes that Volkov has never looked better than he did last time out against Sergei Pavlovich in June in a fight that he believes the Russian coasted through.

“Volkov went out and didn’t even take him serious. Volkov’s trainer in between rounds brought him water and a comb. He combed his hair in between rounds, I mean he was doing marketing and he was doing a spoof and he was performing cuz he was so unimpressed by your great blonde hope.” 

Chael Sonnen Has Firm Stance On Jones vs. Ngannou Prediction After UFC 309: ‘In Hindsight…’

A former opponent of UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones’ has a strong opinion on how a clash with Francis Ngannou would have played out inside the Octagon following this past weekend’s event. Jones returned to action in defense of his title at Saturday’s UFC 309 pay-per-view. The Rochester native was putting the heavyweight gold on […]

A former opponent of UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones’ has a strong opinion on how a clash with Francis Ngannou would have played out inside the Octagon following this past weekend’s event.

Jones returned to action in defense of his title at Saturday’s UFC 309 pay-per-view. The Rochester native was putting the heavyweight gold on the line for the first time at Madison Square Garden, having had injury derail his plans to do so in late 2023.

As was scheduled to be the case last year, “Bones” shared the cage with returning former champ Stipe Miocic, despite the presence of an interim titleholder in Tom Aspinall. And as many had predicted given Miocic’s age and lengthy layoff, Jones tore through the veteran en route to a brutal body-kick TKO stoppage in round three.

But the result did little to affect the bid of Jones’ doubters to dismiss claims he sits as the world’s best heavyweight, with Aspinall front and center in that debate following his recent results.

Also in the conversation is Ngannou, who departed the UFC as lineal heavyweight kingpin at the start of 2023 and recently made a successful debut under the PFL banner.

But when it comes to “The Predator,” one man with experience facing Jones has little doubt how that bout would have gone had he stayed in the UFC…

During a recent episode of his Good Guy/Bad Guy show alongside Daniel Cormier on ESPN MMA’s YouTube channel, Chael Sonnen spoke on Jones’ recent triumph in New York City.

“The American Gangster” was impressed, so much so that he now firmly believes the heavyweight iteration of Jones would have had little trouble dispatching Ngannou inside the cage.

“Do you know what Jon would have done to Francis Ngannou in hindsight?” Sonnen said. “Now that we look back, Jon would have picked that big man a part. I mean, I’m just sharing with you, like, that’s a big man’s nightmare. Jon’s not a heavyweight; Jon is fighting at heavyweight. There’s a massive difference.”

A clash between Jones and Ngannou remains the stuff of fantasy, in spite of both the latter and his organization’s higher-ups calling for a cross-promotional showdown between the two behemoths.

Chael Sonnen Says UFC Won’t Struggle To Find Willing Opponents For Bo Nickal After Latest Performance

With his fourth win inside the Octagon, Bo Nickal continued to climb up the middleweight ladder on Saturday night at UFC 309 whilst remaining undefeated. Despite this, his latest outing was the first to raise some concerns regarding his current level. The 28-year old rising star went the distance with Scotland’s Paul Craig in the […]

With his fourth win inside the Octagon, Bo Nickal continued to climb up the middleweight ladder on Saturday night at UFC 309 whilst remaining undefeated. Despite this, his latest outing was the first to raise some concerns regarding his current level.

The 28-year old rising star went the distance with Scotland’s Paul Craig in the first decision win of his career. Though he won all three rounds against his toughest opponent to date, it was the manner of the performance that many took issue with as the two grappling specialists engaged in a lacklustre striking bout for the entire duration.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing that Nickal showed that he could win the fight without using his wrestling but with Craig not being known for his striking skills either, it wasn’t a particularly impressive display. Chael Sonnen believes that this performance will remove the fear factor and mystique surrounding Nickal during his time in the promotion.

We see it happen time and time again where an exciting prospect comes up against their toughest test and is shown to not be an unbeatable phenom just quite yet. Though Sonnen admitted that Nickal needs time before making the next step up, he believes that the UFC will no longer have any problems matching him after he looked far more beatable than we’ve seen in the past.

“Those days are done, for now, they’re put on hold. The conversation that nobody has called out Bo Nickal, that will change. Come Monday, people will be calling for him. The idea that Bo is the boogeyman in the closet that Dana and Hunter just cannot find opponents for because there is so much respect put on Bo’s name mixed with fear… that is gone. They will find opponents for Bo very quickly now and it doesn’t need to be that way.” 

Chael Sonnen Blames Bo Nickal’s Team For Frustrating UFC 309 Performance: ‘Somebody Got A Hold Of Him!’

Bo Nickal remained undefeated at UFC 309 and earned his biggest win to date but these stats alone do not tell the full story of his performance at Madison Square Garden. The undefeated 185-pounder faced off with Scotland’s Paul Craig in a fight that many believed would be Nickal’s toughest test to date. The biggest […]

Bo Nickal remained undefeated at UFC 309 and earned his biggest win to date but these stats alone do not tell the full story of his performance at Madison Square Garden. The undefeated 185-pounder faced off with Scotland’s Paul Craig in a fight that many believed would be Nickal’s toughest test to date.

The biggest talking point heading into this match-up was whether the wrestling specialist would attempt to play to his strengths against Scotland’s Craig who is an incredibly dangerous submission artist. In the end, we didn’t get to find out how they would have matched up in this area because fight fans instead got a fairly uneventful striking match over three rounds which Nickal won without landing too many significant shots.

In a recent video on his YouTube channel in the aftermath of the UFC’s return to New York, Chael Sonnen voiced his frustrations about the fight and Nickal’s approach in particular. He believes that someone must have told the 28-year old to stay clear of Craig’s grappling and though he ended up winning the striking battle and therefore the fight, Sonnen took a lot of issue with this considering his wrestling credentials.

“My problem with it and my gripe is that you have a four-time world champion… doesn’t do one damn bit of wrestling because somebody got a hold of him. One of his trainers or his training partners sat him down and said, ‘You’re not ready to go to the ground with the guy.’ Well how the F would we know? How in the F we would know that now?”

Sonnen went on to reference Georges St-Pierre and how he would game plan for opponents in comparison. He said that the former welterweight and middleweight champion would look at his three best skill sets and rank them in order to strategize how he would approach the fight and what his back-up plans would be.

“The Bad Guy” believes that Nickal gave Craig too much respect by not sticking to what he does best, stating that this isn’t something that the middleweight prospect did when he faced elite wrestlers so would he start doing it now.

“That is nothing that Bo has ever done. He didn’t show Gabe Dean that respect, he didn’t show Miles Martin that respect, he did not show David Taylor that respect and he refuses to take down, a four-time world champion refuses to use one bit of wrestling against a guy that’s never had a wrestling match. That is because of somebody in his trusted inner circle.”

Chael Sonnen Highlights UFC 309 Prelim Fighter: ‘A Bit Of A Triple Threat’

At UFC 309 on November 16, one fighter will make a childhood dream come true when he makes the walk at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. 2024 has been a year of bucket list moments for Oban Elliott who has earned back-to-back wins inside the Octagon. The Welsh fighter secured his UFC […]

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At UFC 309 on November 16, one fighter will make a childhood dream come true when he makes the walk at the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. 2024 has been a year of bucket list moments for Oban Elliott who has earned back-to-back wins inside the Octagon.

The Welsh fighter secured his UFC contract on the Contender Series and will now look to make it three wins in a row at welterweight when he faces off with Bassil Hafez on the prelims. Elliott is a big pro wrestling fans and therefore, it’s no surprise that his MMA idol growing up was none other than “The Bad Guy”, Chael Sonnen.

They’ve been in communication for many years but at Elliott’s debut at UFC 298 in February, they finally got to meet in person. Though this was clearly a full-circle moment for “The Welsh Gangster”, it was also a great interaction for Sonnen, as he spoke about in a recent video on his YouTube channel.

Sonnen gave some insight into Elliott’s life and career so far and how he feels privileged that the rising talent would take him along for each step of the journey.

“It’s a bit of a triple threat from Oban. He’s got the skills, came with the DNA and the grit. Little boy that had a dream and never lost sight of it, right. All discipline is is remembering what your goal is. That’s all it is but it’s a very hard thing to do and he embraced social media, he was a smart guy… when he did the whole thing, he stayed nice. He’s a real triple threat.”

Elliott’s personality and mentality is what Sonnen wanted to draw the most attention to. He went on to compare him to Anthony Smith who Sonnen believes is another fighter that doesn’t just know how to fight and play the game, he’s a strong individual outside the cage too.

“He never got somewhere and forgot how he got there and that’s a special kind of person. The fighter, yeah man, this guy can squabble. He’s about to fight at Madison Square Garden. He went from a railroad with a guy with a dream thanking Lord in heaven above that he got airtime on Ariel Helwani’s show, he’s going to be fighting at Madison Square Garden so it’s quite a story and there’s a lot more to it. I’m just getting started but moving forward, learn the name.”

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