Chael Sonnen signs With Bellator MMA
Chael Sonnen signs With Bellator MMA
Greg Beacham for the Associated Press reports that the reflection of perfection, the man who gets all your attention, the man with the biggest arm with the greatest charm, who will do harm to the guy three doors down has signed with Bellator MMA for a multiyear, multi-fight deal.
The report was confirmed with Bellator.
Why Bellator MMA and not the UFC, one might ask?
Beacham did.
“When asked I asked Chael Sonnen why he’s returning to MMA with Bellator instead of the UFC or somebody else,” tweeted Beacham. “His answer: ‘Zero apostrophe S.'”
I asked Chael Sonnen why he's returning to MMA with Bellator instead of the UFC or somebody else. His answer: "Zero apostrophe S."
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) September 16, 2016
Now 39, Sonnen was and is the best talker in mixed martial arts, and indeed in all of combat sports. Borrowing remarkably from professional wrestling, Sonnen was nearly all heel, with only the occasional, barest glimmers of babyface.
He was suspended for two years for use of performance-enhancing drugs, and announced his retirement in June of 2014. He has been asked repeatedly if he was considering a return, and ever said no.
When asked by Beacham why he took that stance, Chael offered the obvious answer.
“I’m a heel,” he explained. “Heels lie.”
Sonnen said he is willing to fight any opponent at any weight. The other side of his sometimes comical persona is that he will, in fact, fight any opponent, at any weight.
In the space of a single year, he challenged the two greatest pound for pound fighters in mixed martial arts for their titles, losing to Anderson Silva at UFC 148 on July 7, 2012, and Jon Jones at UFC 159 on April 27, 2013.
And in his title shot before that, he put the greatest beating on Silva of his career, before losing via triangle with less than two minutes to go in the final round.
Bellator has had great success with what president Scott Coker calls “fun fights” that have a distinctly pro wrestling inspired feel. They are undoubtedly paying him a fortune, and it is undoubtedly a wise move.