Sonnen: It is real easy to win, but you gotta know how to lose
On last night’s UFC on FuelTV: Munoz vs. Weidman weigh-in show, Chael Sonnen assisted Jay Glazer and Stephan Bonnar and addressed some of the issues that resulted from his recent loss to Anderson “Spider” Silva at UFC 148.
The main topic was the knee to the chest that he took from Spider, many fans watching live mistook it for a knee to the head and hence, an illegal strike: “The knee really hurt. All those shots hurt. But here’s the reality, we don’t do instant replay in this sport, and we shouldn’t. It comes down to a judgement call, and wherever the referee says the knee landed, officially, that’s where the knee landed. That’s an excellent official, as they all are. He made his call, and that’s the way it goes, and I will never complain or look back.”
“Let’s make sure we don’t call it illegal. The referee’s judgement is what stands. I trust in that, and it works both ways. I’ve thrown knees before; the referee makes his decision. That is the decision we live with. We would never appeal it, except with these. If we had a chance to re-do it, well, that’s a different thing. But we would never go and appeal. The decision’s the decision, and part of competing is, you gotta know how to lose. It’s real easy to win, but you gotta know how to lose. Sometimes you gotta man up, swallow it and walk out.”
As for the missed spinning back-fist which lead to Sonnen’s undoing: “You know, I really wish that I knew and I don’t know. Listen, in fairness, had that landed, we’d all be talking about what a wonderful spinning punch it was. It didn’t, I fell down like a doofus, and I gotta live with it.”
For all the bad blood between the two from UFC 117 to UFC 148 Sonnen not only respects Silva after the loss, but admits that the Champion has a knack for overcoming adversity: “It’s very rare, in a competition, where a guy will fall apart and come back in the same night. Generally, as athletes, when you fall apart, you gotta go re-group. You go back home, you take a few months off and you come back. In my first fight with Anderson, he fell apart, and then, at some point, he decided, ‘You know what? I still think I can win this thing.’ I really admired that in him. I look up to that in an athlete. He does that. Randy Couture does that really well. Anderson did that in this fight a lot, too. In the first round, he offered very little resistance. He came back strong.”
Rumors of Sonnen’s retirement following this bout were put to rest. Despite what his management team may have suggested, Sonnen is not looking to hang up his gloves anytime soon: “I don’t think any athlete should begin to talk like that or think about that until you let about 30 days go by. In anything in life, you don’t wanna make a decision based on emotion. You have highs and very big lows in this sport. You don’t wanna make any drastic decisions. I think that it’s also an insult to the fans when guys like to come out and say, ‘I’m retired!’ When what they really mean is, ‘I’ll see everybody in 18 months, because I’m coming back.’ I don’t wanna do that. But when I get to that point in my career, I’ll make a statement, and I’ll never look back.”
In hindsight, much of Sonnen’s pre-fight banter looks like it was just hype to sell the fight. As a result of this, some have speculated that he might be a good candidate to try out the WWE. Sonnen spoke to that and admitted to being a fan, but he is not going to trade in his MMA gloves for tights in the near future: “I tried to go to the WWE. It’s in Vegas, on the 16th of this month, but I was leaving Vegas. I’d love to go to WWE. I’d love to get my popcorn. I’d cheer on CM Punk, but I go back to my promoter, Dana White, at the end of the night.”
