Chael Sonnen has had quite an interesting UFC career and has seemingly experienced everything. As it turns out though, that almost wasn't the case. He saved his career with a bold move.
The story goes, he was in California and dealing with a shady situation. The UFC middleweight took a fight on short notice and saved the promotion.
“I fought Babalu in California,” the former UFC fighter said on his YouTube channel.
“The promoter that put that event on went against the Attorney Generals Office, who did not have a sanctioning body yet. He told the Attorney General ‘Oh I’m not doing a fight, I’m filming a movie’. This is all scripted.
“So Dana (White), who’s in the process of trying to get regulation throughout the country, including California, now the whole sport gets a big black eye. And people were throwing their hands up in the air and they don’t want to do it. Dana says that anybody who fought on that card will never fight in the UFC.
” I said, but Dana, we didn’t know, nobody told us this. This movie business, and pre-determined outcome and the Attorney General, we heard all these things after the fact.”
Chael Sonnen started to realize that he may not ever fight in the UFC. At the time, there weren't many options outside of the promotion, and being blacklisted could have meant the end of your career.
“Babalu found a way around it, he won an 8 man tournament in one night. He could right his own ticket. He had a short notice replacement fight needed.
“I got guys allegedly speaking up for me, as it turns out they weren’t, trying to get me into the organization. I paid $1500.00 to get Joe Silva’s email. I said I will fight Babalu. Nothing else was said. I was signed and had a contract that night. So not only did I go from being on a blacklist, I went from on a blacklist for fighting a guy that we’re now going to rematch on pay-per-view. It’s a cool story, but it’s my story.”
Short notice opportunities happen in the UFC and Chael Sonnen saw how important it was for his career. Michael Bisping was another great example of how important it can be to stay ready.
“When I tell you how important it is to be ready on short notice, I’m telling you from experience. Ask Michael Bisping if he could get a world title fight, he did everything he needed to do but he couldn’t get one until until he agreed to do it on short notice. He is now in the Hall of Fame and a World Champion.
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