Chael Sonnen is well-known for speaking his mind, often times without a filter. For example, if someone were to ask him if BJJ or Sambo is better, what do you think that Sonnen’s answer would be?
Well, by all accounts it seems that the answer would be – Jiu-Jitsu.

Why? Because, in a video that he posted a while back, Sonnen spoke about the potential outcomes of a hypothetical match between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev (representing high-level BJJ and Sambo, respectively).

Sonnen expressed his fascination with such a matchup…
But doubted Sambo’s authenticity, to say the least:

I’m not [sure] who can beat one or the other, but I do find it very fascinating if we do have a chance to bring high-level Jiu-Jitsu versus high-level Sambo.
For me, that’s interesting.

And I do know that the Jiu-Jitsu community, as a community, has been very scared to do that. I don’t know why…
And I think Jiu-Jitsu wins.

I don’t think Sambo is real. I never have.

Acknowledging the strong Sambo practitioners from Dagestan, including Khabib Nurmagomedov, Sonnen questioned the recognition of Sambo in global sports:

I think that there’s a reason that you can’t get a scholarship in Sambo.
And I think that there’s a reason that if you go to attend Olympic Games, that they’re not going to have a Sambo village.

I don’t think that it’s real, but we’ve got a part of the world – headlined by Khabib and a whole bunch of badas*es out of Dagestan – that say that I’m wrong.

And I do acknowledge that the Jiu-Jitsu community is very scared to find that out.