Chael Sonnen now free to apply for license

Chael Sonnen is now free to apply for a license to fight in California or any other state.

Although there were initial reports after Sonnen failed to get re-licensed by the California Commission last month that he would be ineligible to apply for a license again until May 2012, the Commission later released a statement saying those reports were based on a misunderstanding of the rule in question. In reality, Sonnen can re-apply now. Dodd said he doesn’t know if Sonnen will re-apply in California, but California would have no objection to Sonnen applying for a license elsewhere.

Sonnen indicated at his most recent hearing before the California Commission that he viewed a failure to get re-licensed as career-ending, but Dodd said that’s not true.

“No, that’s not the case,” Dodd said. “I’m pretty sure he’ll probably be able to get licensed in other states. That was his interpretation, I believe, of his contract with the UFC, and that was a big blow to him that he couldn’t do that at that time. But to say that he’s out of it, that was his interpretation, not ours.”

Read entire article…