Monte Cox slams Sonnen for ‘slumlord’ comment
In a recent interview with Sherdog, Chael Sonnen discussed what he labelled the lowest point of his career – fighting…
In a recent interview with Sherdog, Chael Sonnen discussed what he labelled the lowest point of his career – fighting Terry Martin on one of Monte Cox’s XFO shows several years ago. He accused Monte of being a slumlord MMA promoter, who paid him $500 flat to fight, and had no insurance or doctor at the event.
Last Friday, Monte Cox fired back at the charges.
As everyone knows, Chael never lets facts get in the way of a great story. And, you know, a lot of the stuff that he said in that interview was ridiculous.
This is seven years ago. This was a small show, it was an XFO, wasn’t even an Extreme Challenge. It was a show to develop talent, I mean to find people and all that, but what a line-up for a show that, you know, could only fit a 1,000.
And he’s right, it was in a hall and. he’s right. there was no locker room facilities. We had to put them in … basically they had two big storage areas, so there’s tables & chairs. You know, again, it is what it is. I mean, it’s… If you’re fighting in that show, you’re probably there for a reason. You know?
“And he also said, and I don’t remember it exactly, he said $500 flat. I don’t think so. I think, I mean, I can’t remember not giving win money, I mean, and everything. But, I mean… if he decided to fly all the way out and fight Terry Martin for that and then when he’s standing in the ring looking, wondering why he’s doing it, I think it was more than a bad cage that had to do with that injury he got.
He fought Terry Martin and it’s a small show, it’s a Lakemoor show outside of Illinois, has an athletic commission, Illinois’ had one for a long time. This was seven years ago and… you know, we invited him to come and take part in the show and… just real quick, I looked that show up.
“Other people on that show that he makes so much fun of: Jason Guida, Nick Thompson, Bart Palaszewski, Terry Martin, Clay Guida, Roger Huerta, Tara La Rosa who is #1 in the world. We flew in Naoyuki Kotani & Hiroki Kotani from Japan. We brought in Alex Gasson & Sonny Leone from Canada. I mean, this doesn’t sound like a tiny, shitty show to me. I mean, it sounds like a pretty decent show.
“And so he comes on to fight Terry Martin and we were trying to test Martin, I mean everyone Sonnen at the time had fought, you know, not a lot of quality guys but he had a good record and we thought this would be a good fight. And… as I recall it, it wasn’t much of a fight. I remember Terry kind of throwing him around and in the second round he quit. And he said, ‘I pulled something,’ I don’t know what it is, … I mean he’s got a reason I’m sure and he quit in the second round and I saw his (comment), ‘Oh, we were beating the crap out of each other back-and-forth. Back and forth was Terry’s right and Terry’s left. There was no back-and-forth as I recall. But, that’s his memory and, you know, he says that one of the worst experiences of his life and… yeah, it probably was, he got the s— beat out of him!
He says, ‘I’ve only fought in two Monte Cox shows,’ and yeah he has and he fought worse in the other one! In the other one, I had brought him in as a main event against Jeremy Horn in a casino in Omaha. Just like in Illinois, a doctor, insurance, a commission, same thing as all the shows and he lasted about three minutes in that one and… what I remember most about that is he came in with great wrestling credentials and Jeremy Horn picked him up on his shoulder and walked him around the ring and slammed him, put him in the corner, and just hammered him and split him open with a big cut and they stopped it to look at the cut, there’s blood everywhere, and they stopped the fight. I mean, this is a nice-sized gash and… you know, he was fine, he totally got it, he goes, ‘wow, I underestimated him’ and everything was fine. Then, like six months later, I start reading about ‘quick stoppage!’ I was like, quick stoppage?!? I mean, you had like three gallons of blood on the thing. You know, again it’s Chael, I mean his memory is… selective, I think.
I take offense to (Sonnen) saying that I ran a show with no commission and no doctor and all that stuff. That’s bogus. There was all of those things, there was insurance. I just don’t think that a doctor can fix (you) if you don’t have heart. I don’t know what we would have sent him to the hospital with, ‘I have a case of the I Quit’?