Chael Sonnen breaks silence on NSAC troubles, legal woes
Speaking publicly for the first time since his California state athletic commission testimony last December, UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen…
Speaking publicly for the first time since his California state athletic commission testimony last December, UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that he considered his UFC contract unfrozen and was looking forward to getting back in the cage as soon as possible.
“All the frustration and all of the blame is on me,” he said. “I’m the one that chose my words. I’m the one that said when I was in California, I represented to them that I had a conversation with Keith Kizer and he approved my medicine use. That is not correct. Those are the wrong words. My manager had the conversation. I relied on information my manager gave me. So director Kizer is absolutely correct. He’s correct to be frustrated. I chose the words. It comes to me. Now, I wasn’t attempting to mislead anybody, but they’re my words all the same, so I should have to answer to Kizer.”
“I need to clear the air with him and more importantly, I need to clear it on the record,” he said. “My takeaway from the meeting with Kizer was not ‘We don’t want to work with you again.’ It was simply, ‘There’s been some mistakes. Our reservation is you’re going to repeat them.’ That’s not going to happen, but what he wants to do is give me an opportunity to speak on the record so that we can get everything recorded and written down and make sure we don’t do those things again. If i was in Kizer’s shoes, I wouldn’t demand anything less.
Describing the incident as “embarrassing,” Sonnen said he is looking forward to the chance to speak with Kizer again, clearing the air, accepting his share of the blame and finally getting a resolution.