The American gangster, Chael Sonnen is a former UFC middleweight contender, Bellator MMA fighter, with a serious Wrestling and BJJ background.
His Wrestling background is world class. He was a state runner-up in Oregon in high school. At University of Oregon, Sonnen earned All-American honors, was a two-time PAC-10 runner-up, was a silver medalist at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships, and was a two-time Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman winner. He is a brown belt in BJJ.
Sonnen trained some Sambo at Portland a few years back Sambo and recently had some chosen words for the Russian grappling and combat art:
“Sambo s*cks…Sambo’s always s*cked. And I don’t believe Khabib is a Sambo player. I think somewhere, he just wanted to pay respects to Sambo. I believe he got the skills that he got being Dagestani, and I believe he got them in a wrestling room.”
“In the history of them setting up that cage, there’s never been a contender, let alone a standout, that was good at Sambo. It s*cks, it’s not real. It’s a fake sport.”
For Sonnen, Khabib Nurmagomedov is more a Wrestler than a Sambist:
“I’m actually now taking joy in the fact that I know I’m going to offend a bunch of people. Let those crybabies cry. Sambo s*cks. But Khabib doesn’t s*ck, he just pretends he does Sambo.”
Interesting video of Sonnen sparring in Sambo in Portland:
