We prepare for UFC 313 tomorrow! The "Bad Guy," Chael Sonnen joins the show after a goosies introduction by Marcos! Leroy is in shock at the flexible style changes of fighters. What would Chael have done back in the day to get in the head of someone like Alex Pereira? We get Sonnen's take on the upcoming UFC 314, he predicts what Ilia Topuria's hinted fight might be and predicts Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall WILL happen. Sonnen reveals his thoughts on Dana White's transition to boxing.
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00:00Hear from chail son in there chail. You got us
00:03At long last I heard you needed a good-looking badass and one has arrived
00:09We definitely it definitely got prettier on this show chail. Thanks for giving us some time
00:12Uh, we were just asking like uncle live you think he's got a shot this weekend chail
00:16Uh, you know pehena feels like he's steamrolling everybody right now
00:19I do I do and I gotta back up to that green. I was there for the whole thing
00:22I don't know why you couldn't hear me, but that was beautiful and I appreciate the quotes now
00:26I got some inside scoop guys. I'm out here
00:29Uh in vegas doing the ultimate fighter
00:31So every day I go to something known as the pi the performance institute twice this week
00:37Pierre was in there and he was training and we've heard stories that he's not focused
00:41We've heard stories that he doesn't have his team around him
00:43We've heard stories that that he's 30 pounds overweight. I can just tell you from watching him train
00:47None of those things are true. He is the only athlete on this card that sparred five full rounds
00:52He did that twice this week and that was just that I saw that was pure coincidence
00:55And I just happened to see a total of 10 rounds. This guy is fit. He's in shape. He's a mean son of a bitch
01:01I've got to tell you I didn't I don't always see it when the guy's in the octagon
01:05A guy has more skills in his repertoire and he shows that more in practice. This guy is nasty
01:11He is not as advertised. This is not just a stand-up fighter. This is a fighter that prefers to stand up
01:16I can tell you he was very good on the ground
01:20So that's that's my question. Like one of the things I love about the ufc is that you have
01:25So many different styles so many different
01:29Perfections that these guys have and when they all come together
01:33um, do you prefer one style over the other or it's the
01:39Fighter that is able to expand his game to just not one type of fighting
01:44I I think that's the most amazing thing to ufc to me is that so many different
01:51Kind of styles of fighters can come in and fight one another
01:56And see I see it the same way as you I find that fascinating like I started as a fan in 1993
02:01Nobody knew anybody we didn't have weight class championships. There was no money
02:04There was barely tv but there was the same pursuit which is to find out of all the different arts and styles
02:10Which one?
02:11Is the most effective like what would happen if a judo guy took on a taekwondo guy and quite frankly here
02:16We are 30 years later
02:18We still don't have a perfect answer to that question right when you think you know everything a guy like pierre comes along
02:23Like this sport has been proven to be dominated by grapplers and then somebody like payera comes along
02:29He was 36 years old when he started this he became the world champion at 37. He's a double world champion
02:34I'm, not sure by 38. He's not gonna have a third world championship
02:38Do you think chay like you were such a master at getting people's heads?
02:40What would you have done to to get in into his head because he he feels like he doesn't say anything
02:45You just you see him on fight week and he and he goes into action
02:47But there's no reaction to him whatsoever. Except when he does that damn walk out with the bow and arrow
02:53Yeah, and you know, he's so tall like I mean
02:55I just say it's from a wrestling perspective the guys that you can really go out and exploit
02:59Are the taller guys kickboxing that can be effective to have some height too, but the wrestling it's bad
03:04He's got all these legs. All you gotta do is change elevation and go blast them or at least that's what it looks like
03:09Nobody succeeded in doing that. In fact guys to go a step further. I never seen anybody try
03:14It's not just guys are failing to outwrestle him. There's nobody that's tried. There's something about his stance
03:20There's something about his movement that shuts wrestlers down and even when I was watching him in person
03:26I was trying to figure out what that was
03:28I don't quite have it. This guy's got some tricks and this guy he's very good. And by the way when we have always seen
03:34wrestlers dominating strikers, there's there's another element to that which is the wrestler has always been in better shape
03:42He's the one that could push harder in the in the fourth and fifth round
03:45That's not the case with pierre
03:46Pierre has got the the condition advantage
03:49Pierre has never lost a fourth or fifth round and pierre has lost an entire fight before and then knocked the guy out in
03:54The fifth round like he does better as the finish line gets closer and that is a meaningful difference
03:58We've never really seen grappler versus striker where the striker was the better condition and that's one of the things i'm really looking for
04:06When he takes on uncle i have this weekend. I think it's going to be the the the deciding factor
04:11Talking to chael sun you guys can see him this week on esbn's coverage esbn plus pay-per-view
04:15Alex beheda against magomed anka live ufc 313 available for you guys. We got it coming down here
04:21Uh soon chael miami's the next card up and we were speaking with patty the baddie this past week with uh,
04:27This fight coming with uh with michael chandler. Do you feel like for patty the baddie?
04:30Is this too much of a step up for him or do you think he's ready for michael chandler?
04:34He is ready for michael chandler one year ago. I would have laughed about this
04:38I would have dismissed it and the company never even would have signed it
04:40But it's it's a very different world
04:42And we've also got a pretty false reception of patty like he comes across as this young kid and you know
04:47Maybe maybe he's a regional draw and he can help to move the needle a little bit in england
04:52It's not like that. This guy is is truly a star in mma
04:56I've been in rooms when he walks in and then five other famous guys walk in
04:59They give the biggest reception to patty and this whole idea that he's a young kid
05:03I mean this young kid's married with with twins and he happens to be 30 years old
05:07I mean just the perceptions of him are not true. I have never seen anything
05:11That would disqualify my belief that he is a potential world champion as a matter of fact
05:16I predict he bites for the belt in 2025. He's gonna need two wins
05:20They're gonna have to be the right wins, but michael chandler. That's a big name to bring down if he does
05:26We uh, we were curious because you know
05:28There was some buzz that teporia was going to be defending his belt here
05:31And then he moves up and now he's tweeting out that he's got some huge announcement
05:35Chair, you got any any any scoop on that or what teporia's got up his sleeve?
05:40We were just talking about that. Nobody knows. So just to lay this case out
05:45He drops the 45 pound belt. He announces he's going up to 55 now generally
05:50Simultaneously, and I can think of two other examples in history where this has happened
05:53Simultaneously, they will announce that he's fighting for the title the same day that he announces that he's that he's dropping his belt
06:00That's not what happened. So I can't really imagine
06:04Uh, ilia teporia moving up a weight class as an undefeated world champion wreck number two pound for pound and not getting a title shot
06:11however
06:12If he's gonna get the shot, why wasn't it announced?
06:15And so I just think there is a chance that he's going to draw into uh, arman sarukian or a charles olivera
06:21I think there's a chance that there will be one fight that he's got to stop off before he goes for islam
06:26And by the way a poster for ilia in islam is going to do just fine
06:30But it's about as big of a fight as those two think it is
06:33A poster with ilia in islam after ilia gets a win at the division
06:38We're talking about a mega. We're talking about what could be the biggest fight of the year if that scenario played out
06:44There was a news this week chell about dana white. Uh now getting into the the boxing game
06:48What do you think this means for uh for him?
06:52It's awesome and you gotta understand from a human standpoint like
06:55I was a little kid once and I had a dream and I tried to pursue it
06:59So was dana dana was a little boy one time and he had a dream too and it wasn't mma
07:04And it wasn't to be a ceo of a billion dollar company. He wanted in the boxing business
07:08That is what he has always wanted in that
07:11You know, it's a true passion the true love and I just share for you like on a human level
07:15It's nice to see him. I mean that guy works pretty damn hard
07:18It's nice to see that the thing that he really wanted he now has a chance to do I think uh,
07:23I think that's pretty cool. I think they're gonna do great
07:26Jail, you don't think it's difficult to go into
07:29Boxing the way they structure and do things is a little bit different than mma
07:35And in fact, a lot of guys are kind of doing all these
07:39Crazy boxing matches to get the big payday. How is he gonna transition from?
07:45Mma to boxing when the way they pay fighters is so different
07:50Yeah, i'm so curious. I'm so curious what that model is going to be they've
07:53Leader they never have quite a leader in boxing. So to start with
07:58No, the first day or the first week or the first couple of years
08:01There's going to be some real struggle to find your guys who's loyal who really wants to be world champion versus
08:06Who wants to be rich and famous and there's a fine line right there?
08:09But once you identify those guys the community does kind of gravitate towards them. I'm also curious
08:15Is he going to change anything? For example, if he copies the ufc model, then that would mean on each boxing card
08:20We're going to get five feature matches with a co-main event and a heavily promoted main event
08:26That would be very different in boxing. And by the way, if he's going to do that
08:30That's a lot of boxing to watch if all those are 12 round contests
08:33So is he going to shorten it will the undercard be five rounds because boxing is actually very fun to watch
08:40It's just the human body's not made to do it for 12 rounds. So guys go out there with this unspoken agreement
08:45Let's kill five rounds so that we can get through this and then let's go like hell
08:50For the final and sort this out
08:51I mean you'll hear announcers in boxing covering it from the beginning of time. There's a feeling out process
08:56No, there's not you would never hear that at the amateurs
08:59You would never hear that at the olympic games because it's a reasonable time period 12 rounds is not reasonable
09:05For the human body. So I do think that there's some room to shorten it to get four or five
09:10Big matches on a car to actually build build the sport build the storylines. I hope that's the direction they're going
09:16I don't have any inside scoop on that
09:17I mean nothing has been said except for the rumor i'm starting right now that possibly they're going to manipulate the rules
09:22But I hope they do give a good look at that. I mean they used to do this for 15 rounds
09:26Frankly, it was too much
09:28Oh my goodness. I remember those days
09:31It wasn't fun to watch like you know
09:33We got to get him in and get him out get the interview get the story get the trailer going get him in and get
09:37Him out like that's a show
09:39That's fun
09:40And that's I think what he does better than anybody and I really do hope he brings that to boxing
09:44Hope he considers it
09:46Leroy you might have been right. He's not the bad guy anymore. He's too good. He's too lovable now
09:49He's no longer the the big deal. I just one of the things that I always wonder about chail if you if you make it
09:56If you make it shorter
09:58um
10:00Say for example a guy like floyd mayweather
10:04He spends the whole fight being a defensive fighter
10:07If you make that fight shorter
10:09Does in effect he lose more fights because of the aggressiveness of the other fighter because the fight is shorter
10:16Sure, or or does he change his style?
10:18I mean typically, you know, we see this in mma with some real cheaters
10:21We've seen this in the amateurs of boxing with some real changes
10:24The same guy wins the same guy might change his style or change his training
10:28but but he can't I really believe floyd could have really
10:31Focused and condensed that he actually proved that when he got a silver medal in the olympic games that he only had
10:35You know three rounds out there, but he found a way to beat those guys
10:39And he wasn't as defensive. He was a little more aggressive. He understood it was a point system
10:42You understand I need to touch you more than you touch me
10:45I think that they can adapt one thing that jake paul did and people don't really give jake credit
10:49But one thing that he really did that was nice early in his career
10:52He was doing six round fights like when he and mike tyson fought that might have been eight rounds
10:56But you get my point it was enough. We don't need them out there stumbling around for for for 12 and
11:0315 rounds and things like this. We need we need less. We need more action and in less time. That's my opinion
11:09I don't know if i'm going to get my way
11:10But i'm i'm going to campaign for it and i'm starting with you guys right now
11:14I love it. Chao before we get you out of here. You think john jones aspinall actually happens?
11:19Yep, and let me tell you something about that
11:22Contrary to popular belief john jones has not turned that fight down contrary to what's being reported. He has never been offered it
11:29He did his thing in the media. They did their thing in the media
11:32But that phone call behind closed doors has never been placed. I believe the moment it is the moment a date
11:38You know a venue and a location and training camp can begin. I believe john jones is going to be absolutely a green light
11:45He is not ducking that fight as reported. That's a misunderstanding
11:50Chill son and catch him this weekend on espn. He's the best ufc 313 perrea versus uncle. I thanks for the time. Chill. Thanks
11:58Yeah had it i've had it with you all. Goodbye. He's leaving us like that. He's done. All right, I guess I guess that's how it's gonna go