Issue 101
May 2013
He’s faced pound-for-pound great Anderson Silva twice, but FO’s Gareth A Davies decided to give 27-12-1 UFC 205lb number-one contender Chael Sonnen a real challenge: our ‘best’ questions.
Who’s the best?
“Other than myself, there’s really only two guys around that I would say are the best, Jon Jones and Georges St-Pierre. There’s really nobody you could put in front of St Pierre. He conducts himself as a gentleman and people always forget how good he actually is. We constantly have to be reminded of his dominance. Every time he fights everyone goes, ‘OK, you really are the best fighter in the world.’ But then two weeks after he’s done fighting he slides back down everybody’s scale. But Jones is also so dog-gone dominant; he’s a guy that’s won every round of every fight and you can’t look past that.”
Best MMA analyst?
“I never knew this until we started filming The Ultimate Fighter, but one guy who really knows fights and styles and gameplans is Dana White. I didn’t know that about him. He totally studies the sport and can completely break down the techniques in everything. And also Randy Couture, he’s the best I’ve ever worked with. He can look at a video and break it down instantly.
Best advice?
“In MMA nobody has really ever given me any specific advice, it’s more to just set big goals and work hard. If I was giving advice it would be to take opportunities and ‘don’t get ready, stay ready.’ Because the biggest opportunities will come on short notice. And if you’re always ready then you can seize those moments.”
Best career memory?
“My best memory is actually as a fan: the night Randy Couture beat Tim Sylvia for the heavyweight championship (UFC 68, 2007). That was just so inspiring, for a guy coming in off a loss, from retirement and moving up a weight class to fight a champion who was so big and nasty, that was incredible. The whole country was inspired by that.”
Best finish?
“I have the fastest submission in MMA – and if that’s no longer true, nobody told me – 13 seconds over a guy called Tim McKenzie in a fight over in Costa Rica. I got him in a headlock right off and transitioned that into a D’Arce choke and went home.”
Best pre-fight ritual?
“I just like to relax. I like to kick back and watch some television, do nothing, really. It always goes so fast so I just try to slow things down and save my energy.”
Best moment in life?
“I just recently got engaged to the love of my life. Brittany Smith, soon to be Brittany Sonnen.”
Best job outside of the cage?
“I was a movie critic in college and I would love to get back into that one day. Watching movies all day long would be great.
Best sportsmanship?
“I’ve never really experienced anything like that, and to be honest I don’t want to. As a competitor and as a coach of kids wrestling I don’t want to see anybody carry someone else across the finish line. It’s a competition and you do whatever you can to win; that’s true sport. Ensuring victory for yourself, that’s how you show respect for any sport. Weakness and compassion is not sportsmanship, it’s weakness.”
Best music to get pumped?
“I only listen to one form of music, and that’s old country. They don’t make real country music anymore. The stuff they play on these alleged country music stations now is just rock ‘n’ roll. But I listen to country from 1970 to 1990.”
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