Brian Stann Blasts Chael Sonnen, Supports UFC’s Decision To Release Him
News broke last night that the UFC had had enough with retired fighter and FOX Sports 1 broadcast analyst Chael Sonnen after ‘The American Gangster’ failed a late May drug test for fertility drugs anastrozole, clomifene and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and followed it up by failing a second test in early June for human growth hormone (HGH), recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO), and anastrozole again.
Sonnen quickly drummed up a long-winded explanation for his first failure, but he simply couldn’t muster up any plausible defense for his second failure, and the UFC and FOX Sports decided he was a black eye on MMA and fired him.
And soon thereafter, a man who Sonnen submitted back at UFC 136 in October 2011, spoke out in support of the UFC’s decision.
Brian Stann, who recently retired from MMA to focus on broadcasting as well, reached out on Twitter to say that the UFC had no choice but to make an example of Sonnen, noting that if ‘Uncle Chael’s’ first line of defense was to lie, then he has a problem:
“@AverageJoeArt: @BrianStann do you think UFC/FOX making an example of Chael is just?” Yes, absolutely no other choice imo
— Brian Stann (@BrianStann) July 1, 2014
Adversity reveals true character, if your first instinct is to lie or hide, then you have some serious flaws
— Brian Stann (@BrianStann) July 1, 2014
Stann makes a great point here, because Sonnen first insinuated that he had failed the first test in an effort to get his body back to normal after years spent taking the now-banned testosterone-replacement therapy (TRT). However, when it was revealed that he was on some serious performance-enhancing drugs like HGH and EPO in the second test, any small shred of credibility that he may have had left was immediately obliterated.
It’s a shame, because Sonnen made a career out of lying to us. He lied about being the champion, he lied about his abilities in the Octagon, and he lied about his real estate dealing that saw him convicted of money laundering. But most of all, he lied to the fans, and he put an almost irremovable mark on a sport that can ill afford to look any worse in the public eye right now.
It’s all said and done, but at the end of the day, Stann lost to Sonnen when he may have been clean while his opponent was not. We’ll never know. But Stann also lost his last UFC bout to fellow accused PED user Wanderlei Silva at UFC on Fuel TV 8 in March 2013. It’s hard to say whether or not his career would have been different were it not for PEDs in MMA, but it certainly could have been.
Perhaps the fighter with the most stakes in this whole fiasco is Michael Bisping. He lost to Wand, Vitor Belfort, and Sonnen; all three of the fighters involved in this disgusting mess of failed UFC 175 drug tests.
After losing to Tim Kennedy in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter: Nations finale in April, “The Count” is now miles away from a title shot in a stacked division.
But maybe he could have gotten the chance that has eluded him his entire career were it not for steroids and other PEDs. We’ll just never know, and that’s a shame.
