Chael Sonnen’s return to mixed martial arts didn’t go as planned when lost by first-round submission to Tito Ortiz at last month’s Bellator 170. It was the former three-time UFC title challenger’s first fight in a little over three years due to being suspended for failing multiple drug tests in 2014.
When his suspension came up last June, he left the UFC and signed with Bellator. The ESPN MMA analyst wanted to get back into the cage quickly and without more proper MMA training, it cost him against Ortiz. Many didn’t understand the performance, but his boss did. In watching the fight, you could see Sonnen looked out of sorts and fought like someone who hadn’t competitively fought for a long period of time.
“I think people are quick to judge but like you said, the guy was out for several years,” Bellator MMA president Scott Coker told MMA Imports. “He comes back and he wants to fight right away. We put this fight together and he really had three months to train. You know training in the gym for a couple years is a lot different than fighting a real fight. I think Chael probably looks back and says, “ I wish I had some more time to get ready for this matchup”. But he didn’t have enough time to when we set the fight and the promotion started and here we go. You talk so much trash to somebody, it probably feels real good to back it up and because he couldn’t, it has gotten to him and he’s probably got to figure out what he wants to do next and who he wants to fight. I know he’s looking forward to getting back in the cage. That’s what he stressed to me.”
When Sonnen signed with the Viacom-owned promotion, “The American Gangster” made it clear he wanted to fight Wanderlei Silva. The rivals were coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 3” and got into a fight on one of the episodes. Silva and Sonnen were scheduled to fight at UFC 175 but both fighters failed drug tests and the showdown never took place.
Sonnen’s loss to Ortiz looked to dash the hopes of the fight happening. Not so fast, it’s still on and a timeline’s been revealed as to when it could take place.
“Absolutely, Coker stated. “My position hasn’t changed. I think Wanderlei is somebody that Chael wants to fight. I think Wanderlei really wants to fight Chael. I think that fight will happen sometime in the summer.”
Days after the Ortiz fight, Sonnen committed to competing in his grappling promotion, “Submission Underground” for their third event which took place on January 29th against Gary Tonon. The thing was Sonnen never told Bellator he was going do the event. Coker wanted one of his biggest stars to take it easy and rest up after just fighting nine days before.
“I don’t even think we pulled him,” Coker said. “We didn’t even know about it. We said, “Chael, there’s a miscommunication about this. We just felt, you are coming off a big fight, rest and then get ready for your next fight. It doesn’t mean we can’t do this later, but right now isn’t the right time”.”
