Chael: Desire to compete is still there
Chael Sonnen: “The desire was still there. I love to compete. Even now I look forward to competing and it’s a lot of fun. I don’t know if it’s something that ever goes away.
Chael Sonnen spoke recently with Michael Stets for MMAMania, ahead of his color commenting gig at BattleGrounds MMA, live on PPV. BattleGrounds MMA: O.N.E. features the return of 8-Man tournaments, with a $50,000 prize.
Tournament Quarter Finals:
Cody McKenzie vs. Brock Larson
Joe Ray vs. Luigi Fiorvanti
Jesse Taylor vs. Trey Houston
Roan Carneiro vs. Randall Wallace
Tournament reserve fight:
Marcus Sanchez vs. Jordan Smith
Regular singles bouts:
Jonny Carson vs. Danny Navarro
Jamal Parks vs. Ruben Warr
Chris Gutierrez vs. Tyler Shinn
Jen Aniano vs. Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc
Sonnen did not shy away from the controversial heart of the event – the return of the 8-man.
“Exactly why the tournament is exciting is also why it fails and that is guys are banged up and they are sore and tired,” said Sonnen. “It’s very hard to fight three men in one night and the guys that have stepped forward and have agreed to do it have my respect right out of the gate.”
“You are not just watching MMA. You are watching a guy deal with adversity; you are watching a guy chasing a dream; you are watching a guy follow through on his word and you are going to watch somebody become a star.”
Sonnen knows from experience, as a one and done competitor at the legendary IFC: Global Domination event in 2003.
“I lost in the very first round, but it was won by a guy named Babalu,” said Sonnen. “I don’t care if Babalu never won another fight, I will never look at him the same. Until the day we die I will always look at Babalu different. He beat Shogun. He beat Trevor Prangley, and he beat Jeremy Horn all in the same night. I was in there. Forrest Griffin was in there. There were a couple of other studs in there and Babalu won the whole thing.”
Chael notoriously failed a PED test, retired from the sport, and was released as a fight analyst by FOX Sports. However, the desire to fight has not retired.
“The desire was still there,” said Sonnen. “I love to compete. Even now I look forward to competing and it’s a lot of fun. I don’t know if it’s something that ever goes away. I’ll tell you something that does go away, is the desire to train. It’s really, really hard and it’s depressing. There were years just day after day for years waking up depressed knowing what I had to do that day.”
“I think anything in life, whenever you can look back you would always change things. Even some of the great moments. You wish that they were even greater. I don’t have a lot… I was always kind of lucky. I was always in a good situation. Coming out of college and ending up in the same room as Randy Couture and Dan Henderson on a daily basis for free. I had no money. They didn’t charge me. It was just a couple of guys that were getting together and working out. Henderson was the PRIDE champion. Randy was the UFC champion. I really have some great memories and I was really fortunate to be surrounded with people that I love.”
“I love MMA. I’m still with the UFC and I’m under contract.”
“I don’t have a lot of hobbies. I don’t have a lot of friends. I hate days off. I hate them. If I have a day off I just dread it. I would prefer to be out there and working. Talking about the new talent coming up or the current talent that is already there.”
“Dana White works very close to 24 hours a day… He will get a hold at me at two in the morning sometimes. He’s still in the office. He’ll call me from his office line. I’ll talk to him. I’ll do whatever we have to do. One time I asked him, ‘Why are you up?’ He goes, ‘Chael, I honestly hate sleep.’ That was all he said. I just said ‘okay’ and hung up the phone. I don’t hate sleep. I like to sleep, but boy I hate days off. There is nothing worse for me than a day off.”