Fun Flashback: Remember When Sonnen Said He Worked as a Realtor to ‘Contribute to Society in a Meaningful Way’?

("Chael, can you respond to allegations that, like Frankie Edgar, your mother has been laying the pipe for years?" PicProps: The Oregonian)
So, during the last 24 hours the gigantic, teetering house of cards that is Chael Sonnen’s life …


("Chael, can you respond to allegations that, like Frankie Edgar, your mother has been laying the pipe for years?" PicProps: The Oregonian)

So, during the last 24 hours the gigantic, teetering house of cards that is Chael Sonnen’s life has become even more morally untenable than before, huh? At this point — even for those of us who once considered his promotional antics entertaining — it’s become nearly impossible to tell Chael Sonnen the human being apart from Chael Sonnen the carnival huckster. Maybe there never was a difference. Maybe both of Sonnen’s personalities, professional and private, have been consummate bullshit artists all along.

By way of example, a day after he pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges and agreed to turn stoolie on his co-conspirators in a shady real estate scam that somehow involved a plumbing company owned by his mom, we feel compelled to revisit Sonnen’s July, 2010 interview with the Houston Chronicle. You may remember it as the one where he repeatedly asserted that “full time fighters” were just too lazy to get real jobs and said he was obligated to keep his own regular gig as a realtor because – in the newspaper’s words — he “believes that he can contribute to society in a meaningful way.”

When viewed in hindsight of this week’s developments we think you’ll find it even more interesting (read: hilarious) than before.

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Sonnen Makes No Apologies (Video)

UFC Middleweight, Chael Sonnen who popped positive for PEDs after his UFC 117 titleshot against Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva told HDNet’s Mike Straka, he will not offer an explanation or apology for properly disclosing to the CSAC Commissioner that his urine would indeed test positive for high testosterone levels due to his medication consumed for […]

UFC Middleweight, Chael Sonnen who popped positive for PEDs after his UFC 117 titleshot against Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva told HDNet’s Mike Straka, he will not offer an explanation or apology for properly disclosing to the CSAC Commissioner that his urine would indeed test positive for high testosterone levels due to his medication consumed for testosterone replacement therapy to aid his medical condition known as hypogonadism. Sonnen maintains he did not take a steroid and likens calling his medication a “steroid” to calling mouthwash and cough syrup “alcohol”. Chael Sonnen went before the CSAC commission to appeal his 1 year suspension on December 2nd and received a reduced suspension of 6 months. Sonnen’s suspension will be over on March 2, 2011. Full video below:


Video Evidence: These M-1 Global Dudes Have Got Some Balls on Them; Plus Sonnen Talks More About His Pair

(Propers: The Fight Nerd)
A two-for-one video sesh to get your Saturday started: At top, watch the aptly named Fight Nerd chat with M-1 Global Director of Ops Evgeni Kogan at the MMA World Expo 2010 this week. After the jump, find Chael Sonne…

(Propers: The Fight Nerd)

A two-for-one video sesh to get your Saturday started: At top, watch the aptly named Fight Nerd chat with M-1 Global Director of Ops Evgeni Kogan at the MMA World Expo 2010 this week. After the jump, find Chael Sonnen’s “exclusive interview” with HDNet’s Mike Straka following the California State Athletic Commission’s ruling to reduce by half his suspension for a funky UFC 117 drug test. First though, the Fedor stuff, because frankly we’re getting a little bit sick of talking about Sonnen’s gonads …

In this vid, Kogan – who you may remember as the dude who told Ariel Helwani that Fedor was MIA in New York City earlier this year when he no-showed his radio program — looks like he could seamlessly transition from a heated contract negotiation to playing bass for Weezer without even changing his striped belt. He also demonstrates that despite the fact M-1 Global’s biggest bargaining chip expended much of his political capital when he swan dived into the waiting legs of Fabricio Werdum in June, the Rent-a-Fedor company is still not afraid to make a bunch of totally ridiculous demands on both Strikeforce and Showtime. Follow the link to find out what they’re asking for this time. Seriously, it’s gonna blow your mind.

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So Wait, Is It OK or Not OK for Chael Sonnen to Shoot Himself Up With Testosterone?

("What, the pink shirt? I need to wear it for undisclosed medical reasons." PicProps: FightNightNews)
As expected, there’s a ton of fallout today from Thursday’s California State Athletic Commission hearing, which saw Chael Sonnen…


("What, the pink shirt? I need to wear it for undisclosed medical reasons." PicProps: FightNightNews)

As expected, there’s a ton of fallout today from Thursday’s California State Athletic Commission hearing, which saw Chael Sonnen’s year-long suspension for a failed UFC 117 drug test cut in half. Reactions range from pious outrage that Sonnen got let off the hook to excitement that MMA’s best trash talker will be back in the cage sooner than expected to amusement that he had to spend at least part of the hearing publicly talking about his balls. 

A lot of it was very boring and a lot of it was very strange. Sonnen referencing his late-teen puberty and citing the Americans with Disabilities Act as part of his defense were both admittedly pretty weird. All that aside, your feelings on this case probably boil down to whether or not you believe Sonnen has a legitimate, albeit sort of nebulous medical condition that requires the regular injection of testosterone. If you don’t, if you believe Sonnen, his attorneys and his doctor perpetrated a large scale fraud in front of the CSAC, God and everybody online yesterday, you’re probably pretty pissed right now. If you do believe him, then you likely think the commission’s ruling was the appropriate one. 

Honestly, our personal opinions about what happened at the meeting seem kind of beside the point right now. In my view, the thing I’m really still waiting for someone to explain is this: After his suspension is up, will Sonnen be allowed to keep fighting while receiving the same testosterone replacement therapy, so long as he does the proper paperwork next time? If so, then what are we really talking about here? A technicality? An administrative error? Sonnen got confused about to how many doctors and how many times he had to disclose his medical condition? Wow that seems, uh, dull.

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Chael Sonnen’s Suspension Reduced to Six Months on Appeal

Filed under: UFC, NewsUFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen saw his suspension reduced on Thursday, when the California state athletic commission ruled the original one-year penalty would be cut in half to six months during an appeal.

Commission me…

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UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen saw his suspension reduced on Thursday, when the California state athletic commission ruled the original one-year penalty would be cut in half to six months during an appeal.

Commission members voted for the reduced penalty 3-1 after the four deadlocked on upholding his original one-year suspension. Commission executive officer George Dodd, who was a witness in the hearing, did not vote.

The suspension stemmed from a positive drug test produced from Sonnen’s UFC 117 pre-fight urine sample. Testing showed his testosterone to epitestosterone ratio to be 16.9, well above the legal threshold of 4.0

In the nearly two-and-a-half hour Sacramento hearing, Sonnen, his attorneys and physician argued that he had been undergoing testosterone replacement therapy since 2008 to address hypogonadism and had previously disclosed his testosterone usage to commission members.

Sonnen’s Suspension Reduced to Six Months

(Sonnen’s testimony was as good as his pre-UFC 117 soundbites were.)
After a near three-hour hearing before the California State Athletic Commission on Thursday, UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen’s 12-month suspension for non-disclosure of his pr…


(Sonnen’s testimony was as good as his pre-UFC 117 soundbites were.)

After a near three-hour hearing before the California State Athletic Commission on Thursday, UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen’s 12-month suspension for non-disclosure of his prescribed testosterone therapy prior to his UFC 117 championship bout with Anderson Silva was cut in half.

Sonnen’s legal team gave evidence showing that Sonnen has been undergoing testosterone replacement therapy via twice weekly injections of a synthetic version of the hormone since 2008 under the care of his physician, who also testified to the same. 

During testimony, Sonnen said that he had been embarrassed to disclose that he was suffering from hypogonadism, which is characterized by low testosterone levels due to malfunction of his testicles during a fighter’s meeting in which the participants of the card congregate to fill out necessary paperwork in the days prior to the bout. He also revealed that he did not reach puberty until early adulthood and that he did not care to relive the ridicule that he endured as a child because of it.

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