Chael Sonnen returned to Pro MMA Radio for PMR 25 and continued the conversation with host, Larry Pepe that started during his last visit on November 18th.
To start off the interview they discussed the first Filho fight. Sonnen revealed the fact that after looking over his career losses before his first bout with Filho, he noticed an alarming and quite possibly a career destroying trend. Prior to the second Filho fight, all of Sonnen’s losses except the Jeremy Horn fight, came after he was dominantly controlling the fight.
He attributed those losses to a mental block that forced him to basically give up and put himself into a losing position or submission to get out of the fight. After seeing the sports psychologist and going as far as using hypnosis, he feels he has fixed the problem.
When asked if there is any opponent that he truly doesnt like, Sonnen goes on to describe the bad blood between himself and Renato “Bobalu” Sobral. He explains that Sobral doesnt seem to understand that fighters “hype” fights and takes everything to heart. Sonnen says he worries that Sobral is “not professional enough” to keep his anger inside of the cage and went so far as to call Bobalu “a thug”.
Chael also discussed the WEC disolving the middleweight and light-heavyweight divisions. Although he didnt like the decision, he says he thinks it was a good business move.
When Larry Pepe asks who he wants to fight in the UFC, Sonnen states that he doesnt see anyone he would like to fight in the UFC, as they are all “nasty and dangerous.” He says he is not in this business to look good, he is here to win a championship.
Sonnen explains how his style is best suited to defeat the current 185 lb. champ, Anderson Silva. “Im not scared of Silva,” he says. “If we fought, Anderson would be on his back for 25 minutes, guaranteed. He will try a strike and I will shoot for a double and take him down hard,” says Sonnen. He says it would be a 25 minute ground war with himself being the victor. He also proudly touts,”There is no way Anderson can stop my takedowns!”
To hear the entire Pro MMA Radio episode #25 including the interview with Chael Sonnen click HERE. Larry Pepe is the host of Pro MMA Radio – www.prommaradio.com which airs live every Monday evening at 6 pm PT / 9 pm ET.