Chael Sonnen contemplates a weight class jump, potential battle with Jones
Posted on July 13, 2012, 12:25 PM by Mike SearsonIn the following interview, Chael Sonnen talks to Ariel Helwani about his loss to UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva, the rumors of appealing the outcome and Sonnen's future in the sport, whether that means retirement or facing maybe another Champion in a different division.
Their headline bout at UFC 148 was somewhat controversial as many spectators watched as Silva threw a knee to what looked like Sonnen's face without a referee stoppage: "First of all I would never appeal a loss, the ref's decision is final. Secondly the knee was not illegal that was superceded by the referee's call. I don't want anyone to shed a tear for me. The knee got me in the face and when he hit me with it, I thought the ref was going to call it, but he didn't. I remember pausing, but the knee landed where it landed, I am not disputing the results."
Talk out of Sonnen's camp was of an appeal based on some of Silva's actions like grabbing Sonnen's shorts or as NSAC's Keith Kizer pointed out, Silva blatantly using vaseline from his face to grease his torso before the bout. Sonnen is not giving it a second thought: "None of those things affected the fight, you follow those rules every single day. We You cant expect people to rejoice in victory if you don't know how to lose."
Although Sonnen is unlikely to get a third shot at Silva anytime soon, he admits to liking the thought: "If I had the chance to fight him again, I would definitely take it. I am appreciative of him and of the chance he gave me to fight him again and the first time. I was very good for Anderson, but Anderson was very good for me too."
As for rumors about a possible retirement after his recent loss, Sonnen completely laid those to rest: "I love this sport and never want to retire. If that comes it will be because of practice not the outcome of an athletic performance. I'm a competitor. I never got in it for the money or the fame. Back when I started, nobody was coming out to watch us fight and it wasn't on television. There was no money. I can't retire until I win a championship, that is not retirement, that's quitting."
So where does Chael Sonnen go next, if he is not going to work his way back through the Middleweight ranks? Taking a cue from his mentors like Dan Henderson and Randy Couture, Sonnen is considering a move to the Light Heavyweight division for what he calls a "fresh start" and possibly facing Jon Jones: "Getting motivated and being mentally tough is hard. But I'm very disciplined. I will do every thing I can for victory. I don't want to say anything right now until I take some time, maybe a few weeks. My mentors have done it, and it could happen. I would go up to 205. I'm not trying to make any claim or put myself in any corner. There's some great guys at 185 and that's not what it's about. Traditionally and historically, it is a good way to get a fresh start and start over."
Comments
Would be interesting to see Sonnen at 205, couple of grudge matches already set up and wonder how he would perform without the hard weightcut and extra size.
Nice to see a non trolling post.
Yeah I admire Sonnen willing to try out 205. I believe he could do well there. Lots of really great fights could be had there.
Lil Nog, Phil Davis, Rashad Evans, Shogun, etc.
Very true - I have a feeling his extra speed at LHW may help him.Those double leg take downs will be more available on a bigger slightly slower opponent.
They should start him out with a top ten LHW not top five - heck Rampage would hate to fight him( all these guys just want to take me down). I think if Rampage loses his upcoming fight he may retire tho. Ok Rashad would be good I would loves to Chael pound him! Rashad just has that quality about him..
now yushin and vitor are hard fights??? b they was bums!??
Why did you reply to Keith's comment, with something irrelevant to what he said.
Silva fans dont seem to be the brightest individuals. Plus they crave attention.
There are some out there who are reasonable and smart...but from my experience in Vegas, most are little white kids desperately wanting to be Brazilian lol
oh the little white kids are so impressionable - obviously looking for acceptance in some shape or form.
I am a Silva fan but not because he is Brazilian but rather because he is the greatest MMA fighter to date - if you dispute that your intelligence will be in question.
However I am a fan of Brazilian women and rumor has it they are easy.
"The knee got me in the face and when he hit me with it, I thought the ref was going to call it, but he didn't." So, is he saying that the knee was illegal without saying that it was? Well, The knee landed in your chest.
yeah, he's delusional. I always thought he talks so much crap, he eventually started to believe in all of that. Now here's the proof.
The proof? The man said he doesnt want to appeal it. He doesnt believe in instant replays since the sport doesnt do it. He said the knee was a good strike.
He said Silva pulling on his shorts for 20 whole seconds was fine.
He said the best fighter always wins.
Sonnen will be the first to say he was hurt by something the other guy threw. He praises all his opponents.
Yet you two continue to berate Sonnen. Sonnen is being classy yet Underdog and this kid NickPeyon are nit picking..... You two are pathetic.
i admire Sonnen for always going for the challenge
always looking for the top, not looking for easy fights
thats why he is one of my favorites fighters
But Jon Jones is not Anderson Silva
Jones would beat him up bad in the first round
Sonnen is with out a place unless he wants to beat up
most if not all the middleweights again
But not sure if they will give him another title fight
he's not really being classy. the knee didn't hit him in the face. if you didnt catch it here is video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcS43qI3FV0&feature=related
if he really was acting classy he wouldn't even mention it. but being the smart guy he his he is trying to kill two birds with one stone, playing the classy guy still trying to make anderson look like he broke the rules.
He technically did break the rules. The thigh hit the face.
Might want to check your own link.
@Evan.
Arent you supposed to be hating Sonnen and putting everything he does down? All I have seen from you was hate but now you are defending Sonnen? Im confused lol.
Or have I just read some of your other comments wrong?? :o
Either you read it wrong, you're an extremely unintelligent individual, or you can't understand separating certain aspects of skills/quality/performance/etc when dealing with one person.
Personally, I kind of think it's a combination of the latter two. You simply see everything Sonnen does one way because you like him so much, where I don't.
No, I remember you knocking Sonnen completely by saying Weidman would get nothing training with Sonnen.
Seeing your response I see that youre just a little bit of a ****.
I actually see everything Sonnen does and act fair. Silva fans/Sonnen haters see everything one way and its only their way. I counter by giving a fair response.
You on the other hand showed that you can be fair but usually are just hating on Sonnen. Seems like you were the latter of the two that you claimed me to be
"No, I remember you knocking Sonnen completely by saying Weidman would get nothing training with Sonnen."
Yep, you remember that correctly. The problem is its an accurate response. Weidman is already a better grappler, wrestler, and striker than Sonnen. He'd be fighting Silva who fights nothing like Sonnen. It bring snothing to the table for Weidman to bring somebody like that in.
You just have Sonnen's balls so deep down your throat to realize it.
"Seeing your response I see that youre just a little bit of a ****."
Oh no, the biggest nuthugger on this site called me a ****. The horror.
"I actually see everything Sonnen does and act fair. Silva fans/Sonnen haters see everything one way and its only their way. I counter by giving a fair response. "
None of that is accurate, and that's the problem. You think your giving a fair assessment of activities when it comes to Sonnen, and that's rarely true.
"You on the other hand showed that you can be fair but usually are just hating on Sonnen. Seems like you were the latter of the two that you claimed me to be "
It's funny that people on the opposite end of the boat were saying the same thing about me and Silva before and right after the fight. I wonder why that is?
You, along with every person who sees Silva in only one light, have a problem. You will never be able to discuss Sonnen intelligently because when a certain points in debates hit you won't be able to see the reality of certain situations. Sure, you will throw in bits and pieces during discussions about minor shortcoming but in the end it will all come back to "everybody else is wrong, not me".
this came from the Man who you're trying to defend. Chael Sonnen himself. He said something like " I hate those rules anyway, they are pointless"
A knee to the head of a grounded opponent being illegal is stupid already. Now a thigh making contact in the face is illegal?! I've seen many comments saying a thigh is still part of the leg or something, but really would a thigh strike hurt as much as a knee strike? See now. Know the difference.
Technically Sonnen hit Anderson in the back of the head long before that too.
the knee was aiming to chael's chest. thats where all the force went anyway. the thigh TOUCHED sonnen's face but you can't even see his head move back cause of that. still legal or not?
Yep, that is still illegal.
Sonnen never hit the back of Anderson's head. He hit borderline shots a few times, and one of those actions caused Silva to grab the back of his head like Sonnen made contact with it.
I watched the fight twice rewinding for those areas in question and he certainly did hit the back of the head. Although they were unintentional just like Andersons knee which clearly was aimed at Sonnens chest which is why he was only hit with upper thigh in the face.
Might want to watch it again then, he never touched the back of his head.
@P4P
If you watch MMA at all you would have seen a few fights where the upper thigh connects on an opponent's face and it hurts them and are finished off with punches.
The fights are marked as TKO (knee and punches)
So yeah I suppose they do hurt. You should get one of your friends to run and throw a knee in your chest with the upper thigh hitting you in the face against a fence. Let us know how it feels.
Underdog trolling about Chael Sonnen? This cant be true, I DONT BELIEVE MY EYES
Cheal: u mad bro...? No need to answer, it was just a rhetoric question :]
what is that about? sonnen will get killed!!! nobody wants to see that fight!
A drunk post car accident Jones could still destroy Chael....
Are people really still listening to this guy?
War Chael!!!
chael can take a punch, and so far we have never really seen any 1 punch power knock out from jones, who knows if chael can outwrestle him, wade through a few jones shots, land a couple of his own, shoot for a takedown n smother him...then you just never know....although doing all that is pretty damn tough
Agreed. But Jones' reach is over the top and I believe Sonnen would be elbowed to hell in top position. But who knows whether Sonnen could stifle those elbows. I dont think anyone can but its certainly possible. Though nobody has put Jones on his back.
Likely Jones would beat Sonnen but we would have to see Sonnen at LHW and see how he does against a quality opponent.
I think Sonnen vs Evans or Davis would be a good test. Would be a fun fight too.
Chael would be destroyed at 205 unless he fought somebody outside of the top 20. He'd be fighting with a weight disadvantage, against guys naturally bigger than him, who also have better wrestling. It would be a wake up call real quick on the competitive level in each division after he got beat.
Dude. As much as we would like to believe that in fight sports. It's the size that always matters.
I don't wanna question your knowledge with Mixed Martial arts and I think you have way more knowledge than me ,but really, Pride and other old MMA promotions showed the fans that Size, Weight, Reach doesn't insure how the fight's going to end. A sure "W" for a much bigger competitor is never a factor. It all comes down to the fight day, of who's gonna use his set of skills and impose it to his opponent.
And as much as I've hated this guy during his run for the MW championship. I think he can and he will very well maybe a great LHW contender.
You're exactly on one point, I have more MMA knowledge than you (joking, joking).
I understand where your coming from, but most of the actions of the past 5-6 years have shown size does matter in MMA. Even in Pride the bigger guy almost always won. Even HW where everyone tries to make a big point of Fedor not being that big, was ruled by the bigger guy most of the time.
Size doesn't always matter, but when taking into account Chael's skill set (mostly wrestling). It doesn't bode well for 205 (where guys have good pedigrees themselves), because wrestling is maybe the most weight critical aspect in MMA.
did you see what demian maia did to cheal?
do as you promised instead chael, leave the UFC...
or switch to WWE, there you can talk smack all day long and no need to strengthen those pillow punches...
What's up with all the Chael nuthuggers on here. He doesn't have the power to even put a mark on Anderson's face after "a five round ass whooping" and you think he can beat Rashad or Bader, let alone Jones? Shoot, Mark Hammill would destroy Chael Sonnen. Anyone talking about Jones vs Sonnen like it would last longer than 30 seconds is a noob that jumped on the Chael hype train. BTW news flash, Anderson smashed your train off the tracks with a vicious knee to the chest. Giving Chael another rematch against Silva would be a crime against humanity.
give him Lil Nog or Machida, I want to see him get beat up by every brazilian he dissed.
Screw the haters. Go Shael, go!!!
Had a dream shael arm barred Silva in the 3rd fight last night.
There has been so many back and forth discussion with the knee. First of all it was a legal knee no doubt or should be no doubt about that. Did Silva's thigh hit Sonnen in the face? Yes it did BUT that was accidental it's like a groin shot it's accidental but fight should not be stopped because of it... I'm not an expert in all of the marital arts but I have never heard a strike using the thigh so if anyone out there that knows a martial arts that use the thigh as a weapon please tell me about it..
You guys should really start reading the rules before you act like a point your making is valid.
"Did Silva's thigh hit Sonnen in the face? Yes it did BUT that was accidental it's like a groin shot it's accidental but fight should not be stopped because of it.."
One, fights get stopped because of accidental groin shots all the time. 5 minute recovery period, same thing should have happened here. Second, even if it's an accident its still illegal.