You can always trust Chael Sonnen to grab your attention, but of all the ways he’s made headlines this is perhaps the most intriguing and has the highest pro-wrestling-esque feel to it. Sonnen revealed to Helwani of MMAFighting that he’ll be applying to referee December’s middleweight title fight between Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva. Apparently Sonnen has done some reffing outside of Nevada and will be applying for his in-state license. He seemed pretty practical about his chances of getting the assignment and it sounds doubtful that he would, but it’s a strange and fascinating possibility.
I’m unbiased as a journalist. I mean, you’re the insider you probably know, but I’m putting in an application. I’m gonna try to get my referee’s license and I’m hoping to officiate that match. Whether they’ll assign me to it or not, I’ve reffed plenty of matches in other jurisdictions and I’m applying for that one in Nevada.
Do you think you’ll get it? That would be huge.
To get the main event, no. It’ll be tough unless I can work a show or two before then in Nevada and I actually don’t know what the schedule is there. But to referee, yeah, of course.Anything you’d like to say to Keith Kizer, why you should be reffing that fight?
Oh, no no. I don’t want to make a pitch to him. He makes expert opinions, he knows exactly what he’s doing. And there’s great refs out there. You brought it up, I want to ref it. I’m sure every other ref does too, but I’m putting my name in.
He also talked about his continued desire to fight Wanderlei Silva, his recent gym change and a lot more. Who knows, if he can get himself on the circuit in Nevada we may soon see Chael Sonnen with his very own hand gesture and catch phrase. In the meantime we’ll have to settle for watching him fight Mauricio Rua this weekend. UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Sonnen takes place August 17th in Boston, Massachusetts. Keep checking back for more fight announcements, news, and technical breakdowns leading up to the card.
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