Chael “The American Gangster” Sonnen is a fighter who has never had any problem with labelling himself the best in the business.
The man with one of MMA’s most legendary mouths flipped the script on Monday’s episode of the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani when he surprisingly stated that he is in fact, “the worst fighter”. Sonnen’s rationale is this: as Tito Ortiz is the worst he has ever faced, according to his claims, that makes Sonnen even worse. Discussing his anti-climactic loss to Ortiz via submission at Bellator 170 in January, the legendary motormouth stated:
“Oh, Tito is terrible,” Sonnen said. “Tito was absolutely terrible. I was in the fight with him and that fight ended and some people said it was a fixed fight, to use that term.
“When you fight so poorly that some people can’t even imagine you fought that poorly that it has to be fixed, that’s not good. On some hands, it’s funny we can sit here and laugh about it. But that’s how bad it was.”
With speculation rife of a fix in a fight following the manner of Ortiz’s submission victory, many were keen to point out that both men’s ages, and the fact that Sonnen had not fought in three years, were points worthy of ruling out nefarious activity. Despite age and inactivity at play, the 39-year-old was not happy with his performance over “The Huntington Beach Bady Boy”:
Tito sucks,” said Sonnen “I mean, Tito is so bad. And when you lose to a guy, then you suck. That’s the way it works, man. I wouldn’t put that guy without putting myself down. Tito is the worst fighter I ever fought and that makes me the worst fighter. And I just didn’t know that about myself.”
Sonnen added that the embarrassment of such a loss brought a certain sense of guilt following the fight:
“It’s very embarrassing and it’s a let down, not just to you and your fans, but your coaches. My coaches put in a lot of time with me for very little thanks. I do feel like I owe it to them.”
