When it comes to big mouths in sports, it doesn’t get much bigger than Chael Sonnen. I’m guessing you’re thinking T.O. and Chad would take the cake, but Sonnen has those guys whipped, it’s just that you probably don’t follow MMA to realize it.
Sonnen recently called out fighters Georges St. Pierre and Brock Lesnar despite being in a much lower weight class. He was talking all kinds of crap about Anderson Silva (widely considered to be one of the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world) prior to their bout. And despite losing to Silva, Sonnen’s been talking up a big game as if he won the thing!
Much like Jay Mariotti’s arrest, their probably wasn’t any item of news more satisfying for members of the MMA community than the Sherdog report that Sonnen tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs following his fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 117. This seems to be retribution for disrespecting his opponents with all his talking.
Sonnen is the second fighter who looked impressive in a loss to a high-profile opponent and was later linked to PEDs. What gets me is that there is little outrage within the fighting community over such news.
Baseball players are crucified for being linked to PEDs because real fans don’t want the sanctity of the game to be ruined. Football players generally get a pass because we love the game so much, figure it’s physical in nature, and because we have a hard time seeing a link between PED use and on-field advantage (seeing a guy hit a ball farther than usual raises our suspicions, seeing someone score a touchdown does not).
I’m not complaining that baseball players are held to a higher standard than other athletes; I’m upset that people aren’t more outraged over any professional athlete using illegal substances to gain an advantage over an opponent. When you’re talking hand-to-hand combat, using PEDs gives you a huge strength advantage over your opponent. This not only can help one fighter win, it also has a greater chance of leading to injury especially in such a brutal sport.
Sonnen certainly was caught with a dose of Karma, but I’m wondering what the fans will say. Do they really think Sonnen would have looked as good if he wasn’t all juiced up? I doubt it. I hope the fans speak up loudly and start ignoring Chael. The only good news is that at least he wound up losing the fight to Silva otherwise this would have resulted in an even larger mess.
