Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American athlete Chael Sonnen.
Last updated on December 25, 2024.
Chael Patrick Sonnen is an American submission grappling promoter, mixed martial arts (MMA) analyst, and retired mixed martial artist. Beginning his MMA career in 1997, Sonnen competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he became a top contender in both the light heavyweight and middleweight divisions and challenged for both the UFC Light Heavyweight and UFC Middleweight Championships. Sonnen has also fought in World Extreme Cagefighting, Pancrase, and most recently for Bellator MMA. Sonnen is often considered one of the best mixed martial artists never to have won a major MMA world championship and one of the sport's greatest trash-talkers.
The fight takes 15 minutes. The build-up takes 90 days. It takes that for a reason.
I never receive backlash for my comments. I receive praise.
I'm not going to sidestep anybody, I'm not going to back down from anybody at any weight, and most importantly, I'm not going to pick on a guy who is weaker.
Brock Lesnar made a career out of refusing to do media and not being accessible.
There was years when my father didn't even make a hundred grand - or barely made a hundred grand - and sure, we had a maid, but she only came twice a week. What do you think happened the other five days? You think those dishes washed themselves? You think those clothes got themselves in the hamper?
I've been in a position where I've been barely doing any damage, and the ref stopped it. It's just sport.
A double leg in MMA is completely different than what you would do in wrestling because the posture's different. You're standing upright as opposed to bent over; you're slipping a punch as a opposed to grabbing a guy's elbow and doing a traditional elbow pull or slide-by in wrestling.
Fans don't even know what they want at times.
All our careers end the same: Face down and embarrassed.
For me, I prefer to be the heel.
I don't really know what 'respect' means. That sounds like something a kid in the street says after he's getting ready to take your coat and your shoes.
Triangle chokes are the refuge for cowards. I would never stoop to that level of locking my legs around a man and squeezing.
One element of wrestling that I know what I grew up with we put a lot of emphasis towards was the takedown. But, you could win an Olympic championship and never score a takedown, and I don't know if MMA fans are even aware of that.
I had dreams in 2000 of being an Olympian for boxing. I never talk about it.
I'm a God-fearing man, go to church every Sunday, and have since I was a boy. But if I ever found out that God cared one way or another about a borderline illegal fist-fight on Saturday night, I would be so greatly disappointed that it would make rethink my entire belief system.
Accosting somebody in public can be regrettable. Accosting a gangster can be hazardous.
I'm a tournament guy; that's what I grew up doing.
I've had a lot of fights, and they haven't all gone my way.
I've suffered rib injuries, but I've never had a broken one. I've dislocated it and popped it, and even that, a big step down from broken, it hurts so bad. But you can't really move. You can't even fully breathe and take a deep breath of air.
If your body produces testosterone naturally, fine. Mine doesn't.
What you don't want is for somebody to not care. Whenever they have no feeling at all, that's bad. Even if they kind of like you or they kind of don't, that's also bad. It's got to be a strong emotion one way or the other.
My dad was a plumber. That's hard work. He never missed a day of work. I will never disrespect him by not showing up for an athletic competition that has a maximum duration of 25 minutes. There should be forfeiture if you have to pull out of a fight. If you don't show up, it should be a loss on your record.
I'm candy-coated poison, and you should not believe anything else.
I was in Las Vegas when the Nogueira brothers first touched down in America. There was a bus - this is a true story. There was a bus that pulled up to a red light, and Little Nog tried to feed it a carrot while Big Nog was petting it. He thought it was a horse. This really happened.
You can never have the comeback if you don't have the retirement.
Fighting is an expression. It's a form of speech, and that's why they call it martial arts. It's an art.
My ideal fight would be against the smallest guy with the most atrocious record in the largest venue for the most insane paycheck. I love easy fights.
Every fight day, I just stay in my room the entire day, and I just stay in bed. I sleep as late as I can, which usually isn't very late; I'm kind of an early riser. But I try to just stay there in bed. I don't usually eat the day of the fight. I don't eat until after the fight.
When you go, 'Listen, I didn't know. I didn't know the rules.' That works. That's a good, solid defense. One time.
The greatest form of expression - or, at least, the most common that we have as human beings, what separates us from the animals - is speaking: the ability to communicate.
I'm a huge supporter of Trump.
I like Bryan Caraway a lot; I used to train with him. I consider him a friend.
We start to decline as humans and, particularly, as athletes right around 25 years old. If you're real lucky, you might push that to 27 or 28.
I didn't get to go to school functions growing up. I didn't get to go to dances. I was never invited to a party ever. Until I got to college and threw a party, I had never even been to one.
I'm not going to be one of the guys who hangs around if he doesn't have a road to the title.
I'm a Catholic, and not because I just happened to wake up as a Catholic. I'm not going to be persuaded on any topic, especially not that.
Every time you win, you get another fight. Every time you get a fight, you get promotion, marketing, and media. Those things are what makes stars.
As a fighter, that's not something that ever factors in, whether you go first or last or you walk out first or you walk out second. It's not something that ever factors in or you feel slighted about. I don't think that anybody would care. The job is the same.
I've got two 10-8 rounds against Anderson Silva. That's just the truth. I have no equal at middleweight.
Wrestlers tend to do good in MMA because they tend to be just some tough guys. It's not a karate situation where they grew up their whole life punching the air; in a wrestling situation, you grab a hold of another human being every day.
Whenever you can evoke a strong emotion and want somebody to tune in, whether it's to see you win or get beat up - and I've been on both sides of that - it's a win.
The kind of wrestler that's going to do well in a combat style event like MMA is one that can explode through - doesn't need to spend time on the mat - hit his opponent, get him off his feet, and get on top quickly.
Jealousy is a hell of a thing. There's a reason it's one of the deadly sins.
I don't walk around looking into cameras and telling people I'm the best fighter in the world just to hear myself talk. I say it for the same reason they put warnings on packages of cigarettes, and fighting Chael Sonnen may be hazardous to one's health.
I thought if you tapped out, you lost the round. Come to find out, you actually lose the fight.
There's a camaraderie that comes with this sport, but fighting Anderson Silva is a lot like eating Chinese food: twenty minutes after I do it, I'm going to want to do it again.
When I was a kid, I was a big fan of the regional scene. I read 'Pro Wrestling Illustrated,' and I watched Portland Wrestling and everything I could.
Georges St-Pierre is the greatest fighter to have ever done it.
All medicine is made to make you better. If it did the opposite, it would be malpractice.
Werdum's open to being knocked out in any fight because he's so reckless, but that's also what makes him so damn dynamic.
When I'm a fan, I show up to boo. I don't show up to cheer; I show up to heckle.
I'm not after the money or the fame. I'm after the world championship, and that's it.
The soreness you feel after a fight or after a good battle, it's the best feeling in the world. You might sit and complain about it, but you feel so accomplished.
Very normal trajectory of a fighter's career - you start out fighting at the YMCA. You move on to the dog park. You get into a coliseum. On your way out, you go back to the YMCA, and then you finish up at the dog park.
I'm better than Jon Jones. I'm better than Sean Combs. I am even better than John Holmes.
People bring it up to me: 'Well, you're only in your spot because you can talk well.' Okay, first off, you could be right. But second, what - am I supposed to apologize for this? No.
The only thing more embellished than Floyd Mayweather's pay-per-view buys is Floyd Mayweather's net worth. But his spending habits are real.
There are rules that say 'If a fighter gets old, when a fighter slows down, when a fighter stops looking the same, then he can never come back.' I don't like that.
I've competitively boxed. It's definitely Plan B for me, but I know how to box.