Since the mainstream superstardom of Conor McGregor, the trend among fighters today have been the demand for “big money fights.” So much so that big names such as Luke Rockhold and Demetrious Johnson have both voiced out dissatisfaction on their respective salaries.
But there are other fighters who claim to still hold the old school “fight first, money later” mentality. One of them being Chael Sonnen, who recently signed a multi-fight deal with Bellator.
“The American Gangster” had been on the sidelines, mostly doing broadcast work. While he was a mere observer, he has apparently grown disdain towards the new mentality that fighters today hold.
“You either want to fight or you don’t, and one of my main motivations for coming back is pure anger,” Sonnen said during Friday’s Bellator conference call (via MMA Fighting). “I sit back as a fan, I watch these guys quibble and squabble. I put this deal together with Coker over three phone calls. I didn’t negotiate. I didn’t ask for anything. I wanted an opportunity to fight, that was it. And he’ll tell you the same thing. It was as simple as that.”
“I am legitimately pissed off as a fan when I sit and read about guys who will only do this for ‘x’ amount of money, and everybody needs to be bribed. They need this big carrot dangled in front of their face. It comes back to the Olympic spirit. It comes back to ‘let’s get that world championship.’”
Sonnen, who last competed in 2013 against Rashad Evans, believes fighting should only be a matter of a yes or no, and it is a philosophy which he believes makes him stand out from his contemporaries.
“Do you want to do it or not? And the right guy, the best guy, every time says yes. And (number) three and four and five can go and do all these pity parties and come up with all of these reasons why they don’t want to jump and fight. I’m not one of those guys. I want to do it.”