Chael Sonnen is an expert at making MMA fights exciting and worth watching. He was well known for being a great talker, so that helped him become very famous in the UFC. He even got to fight for championship belts in two different divisions! Because of this, he knows what it takes to promote fights and draw people’s attention.
Chael Sonnen was really impressed after seeing Israel Adesanya win his UFC title against Alex Pereira. Sonnen was paying close attention, and was surprised with what he saw from the two-time middleweight champion.
“Chael Sonnen said that it’s a big deal when someone changes from being nice to mean. For example, a guy named Izzy was trying to be friendly and encouraging to another person but then the person said that he won even though he had been beaten by him three times in the past. That means this guy has changed from being kind and compassionate to being disregarding and unkind.”
The first time I witnessed something similar was embarrassing. Chuck Liddell lost to Tito Ortiz. This made Tito lose his belt, fame, money and position in the company. He went on some show that nobody watched and sneaked a hit on a 48 year old guy, thinking everything is perfectly alright. No, things are not good! Chuck has much more advantages than him – like millions ahead of money, fights won, experience and public perception. All these things were taken away from Tito by Chuck.
Tito had done something and this made me think of Adesanya. He tried to act like everything was cool, but actually he had forced someone out of a sport who he then managed to beat in the ‘Mecca’. This means they weren’t really friends because usually when someone has been defeated, you wouldn’t be friends with them until they become the bad guy (“heel”).
Adesanya wanted revenge on Pereira after losing three times before in kickboxing and MMA. On Saturday at UFC 287, his revenge was successful as he knocked Pereira out in the second round.
After his win, Adesanya and Pereira hugged backstage at the Kaseya Center in Miami, which made Sonnen very happy. Adesanya also added to the show with some fake arrows he shot over Pereira’s body after his knockout. At the same time, he made fun of Pereira’s son standing at cageside by copying his celebration from when they faced off two years ago in a kickboxing match.
Sonnen praised Adesanya’s actions after the fight because Adesanya made fun of Pereira’s son, which Adesanya himself described as “petty”.
“It’s really admirable! The young kid was owed it. Around six years ago, he was probably only six-years-old when the kickboxing video was shot. That makes it a big deal because the impact is different if you do something to an adult than if you do something to a minor. All in all, I think it was great!”
Sonnen believes that Adesanya’s choice to be the ‘bad guy’ will affect what happens next at UFC 287.
After what happened, Adesanya strongly refused to have a third MMA fight with Pereira and instead, he was mad at Dricus Du Plessis from South Africa. According to Sonnen, Adesanya may have successfully created a different story about his ongoing rivalry with Pereira by doing this.
“I really hope that fans, as well as fighters, can consider this carefully,” said Sonnen. “Having someone who just complains without any useful ideas is really not very helpful in life. For example, look at politicians who criticize others and yet have no solutions themselves!”
I supported the idea of Pereira vs. Adesanya fighting again, but after Adesanya pushed for Du Plessis to fight him instead, I’m now on Team Du Plessis. I decided this while talking on one of the biggest shows in this topic area – and that’s something I never would’ve thought of doing before. This is a big change from normal because Adesanya has created an entire new group who are supporting his side, creating another fight for us all.
Basically, Robert Whittaker needs a dance partner. Everyone else is taken except for Pereira and the only thing that Izzy wants is some new people to compete with him. He beat everyone and looks set to keep doing it unless we let Du Plessis join in — he’s on a roll and there’s an African connection too. So it looks like bringing in Pereira will make sense.
The argument which is being made here might be the winning one now that Pereira isn’t a part of this division. The real question is, if Pereira decides to move up in weight class, will he get an opportunity to fight for a world championship title too? In history, only one person has been knocked out at the ’85 weight class and gone on to try their luck at 205 – that’s me.
