Chael Sonnen bravely opened up about how Randy Couture helped him with a major issue he was going through during his time as a mixed martial artist.
In his esteemed career, ‘The American Gangster’ cemented his status as one of the greatest trash talkers of all time. Joe Rogan has even gone as far as to say Sonnen was his favorite fighter to interview.
However, behind the bravado, stood a human being, who struggled with the pressure of fighting in front of the world.
Struggling with the mental aspect of the sport, he sought out the advice of ‘The Natural’.
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Randy Couture helped Chael Sonnen deal with self-doubt
Becoming one of the biggest stars in the UFC wasn’t easy for Chael Sonnen, with the pressure of competing on the grandest stage of them all taking its toll.
Struggling with this, he asked Randy Couture for his words of wisdom, with the former two-weight world champion all too happy to help.
During an episode of The Ultimate Fighter, he told Uriah Hall: “Everyone is going through it. I used to think there was something wrong with me, and I used to be really embarrassed about it.
“I talked to Randy Couture about it, and he said, the one thing that he learned is that he could never defeat the second-guessing, or the negative thoughts in his head, and he learned, ‘I’ve gotta learn to compete with it, I can’t kill this off’.”
Putting this advice into practice, Sonnen later added: “When doubt seeps in, you’ve got two roads, you can take either road, you can go to the left or you can go to the right.
“They’ll tell you failure is not an option, that is ridiculous, failure is always an option, failure is the most readily available option at all times. But it’s a choice, you can choose to fail, you can choose to succeed.
“If we can plant seeds and let him know, move your feet, keep your hands up, stay off the bottom, that is the road to victory, or self-doubt and negative talk, that is the road to failure. But failure is always there, and it’s ok to recognize that.”
Chael Sonnen reveals the surprising reason he didn’t have any confidence during his first fight with Anderson Silva
Despite confidence issues, Sonnen still competed at an incredibly high level, pushing Anderson Silva to his limits in their first encounter.
Throughout the entire clash with ‘The Spider’, the Oregon grappler was concerned about one thing in particular.
Showcasing his honesty, Sonnen revealed what worried him most while taking on Silva.