Having tried his best to entice UFC Hall of Famer Liddell back into the cage, Chael Sonnen has admitted that it is a lost cause
“The Iceman” provided fans with a series of indications that he was preparing to return to competitive action in 2017, yet nothing materialized.
Sonnen told a Bellator media lunch this week that he was throwing barbs Lidell’s way in anticipation of a return. With no sign on the horizon, “The American Gangster” is now certain that the former UFC light heavyweight champion will remain retired:
“Nothing,” Sonnen said (via MMAFighting.com). “Dead issue. I thought that Chuck was coming back. I had good reason to believe that. He lost his job. He said he wanted to come back, then he went into the gym. This was my evidence. But I had these three pieces of evidence.
“He played along a little bit. He looked like I foreshadowed it correctly. But sure enough, he’s not coming back. It was just some talk. So, I let it go.”
Sonnen, despite resigning himself to insisting the fight will not happen, still managed to throw a few eyebrow-raising comments Liddell’s way:
“That bummed me out,” Sonnen said. “What I think, regardless of the way I tell the story, I think that Chuck is probably a pretty good guy. He’s gotta walk around with that haircut, looks like he lost a bet. That can’t be easy to do. … It’s not easy to be Chuck. You’re broke, you snorted all your money away. It’s not an easy to live. I don’t need me to kick him while he’s down, either. If he wanted to come back, we could agree to a match and then maybe things would be different. But I think in this setting, I wish him well.”
