At the media conference call held over the weekend to formally announce the Bellator MMA signing of top former UFC title contender Chael Sonnen, “The Bad Guy” revealed the fact that “pure anger” was the key motivational reason for making his return to the fight game.
As Sonnen explained during the call, which also featured Bellator MMA President Scott Coker, he sees a lot of fighters nit-picking about issues such as money, weight classes and only being willing to fight specific opponents.
“I keep watching these guys, and it’s like Marshall Mathers says: they might walk like me and talk like me, dress, act, not give a dang like me, and they just might be the next best thing, but they are not quite me,” said Sonnen. “I’m watching these guys and they’re talking about money and who their opponents are and the weight class and then this happens. Who cares about all of that stuff?”
The gangster from the mean streets of West Linn, Oregon might be a colorful character who is full of bravado, but there is also a very real, fighter’s-fighter type of persona that he has at his core. Sonnen pointed out that regardless of any of the contractual factors surrounding his fights, as long as he has an opponent with a heartbeat, a date and a location, once his music hits the speakers — he will make that walk to the cage.
“You either want to fight or you don’t, and one of my main motivations for coming back is pure anger,” said Sonnen. “I sit back as a fan, I watch these guys quibble and squabble. I put this deal together with Coker over three phone calls. I didn’t negotiate. I didn’t ask for anything. I wanted an opportunity to fight, that was it. And he’ll tell you the same thing. It was as simple as that.”
Sonnen continued, claiming that it “legitimately pisses him off” when he sees fighters these days practically needing to be bribed to advance their careers.
“I am legitimately pissed off as a fan when I sit and read about guys who will only do this for ‘x’ amount of money, and everybody needs to be bribed,” Sonnen said. “They need this big carrot dangled in front of their face. It comes back to the Olympic spirit. It comes back to ‘let’s get that world championship.’ Do you want to do it or not? And the right guy, the best guy, every time says yes. And (number) three and four and five can go and do all these pity parties and come up with all of these reasons why they don’t want to jump and fight. I’m not one of those guys. I want to do it.”
Sonnen was definitely the biggest talker and one of the biggest draws in the sport when he walked away and retired after receiving a lengthy Nevada Athletic Commission suspension for popping hot on a pre-fight drug test, however there’s no confusing who the top dog at the box office is today — “The Notorious” Conor McGregor. As Sonnen pointed out during the Bellator MMA media call on Friday, he’s also coming back to reclaim the records that were broken by the Irishman during his hiatus.
“I get competitive in other ways than just in the ring,” Sonnen said. “I want the highest rating. I want the biggest pay-per-view numbers. I want to move more t-shirts and more tickets than anybody else. I look at those numbers, and I had all of those records. I retired. When I retired, I got beat. All of those records are gone now. I used to have the North American gate (record). I used to have the pay-per-view (record). We were on FS1, I had the FS1 (record). I had them all. I’ve lost them all, and I’m here to get them all back. All of them. Numbers do not lie. I’m taking them all back.”
Last week, Chael Sonnen parted ways with the UFC and officially signed to make his professional MMA fighting return in Bellator MMA. “The American Gangster” signed a multi-year deal with the promotion and intends to compete at Light Heavyweight in his first fight back. Both Sonnen and Scott Coker, however, have also mentioned the possibility of fights for him at Middleweight and/or Heavyweight as well, with such names as Fedor Emelianenko, Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva and Rory MacDonald coming up as potential opponents.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Chael Sonnen quotes from the Bellator MMA media call.
