Chael Sonnen recently admitted to fabricating claims about being a BJJ black belt early in his career.
With a professional debut dating back to 1997, Sonnen came up during a time when the sport of mixed martial arts was still finding its footing…
And the lines between truth and bravado were often blurred:
Once upon a time, I am living in Eugene, Oregon.
I am minding my own business.Now, I am secretly mastering the sport of the no holds barred, I am mastering doing UFC.
I am mastering the NHB, all these different terms, mixed martial arts wasn’t even the official term.At the time of this story, which is 1999, I am a wrestler at the University of Oregon.
And after wrestling practice I am going across town and I am training with Marcus Lewis at Hard Knocks Gym…
However, he also falsely claimed to be a BJJ black belt, which led to some unexpected situations:
I was also a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and that part wasn’t a secret.
I would tell people I was a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu.In fact, the fact that I was black belt in Jiu-Jitsu got to two purple belts under (Wellington “Megaton” Dias), who happens to be Mackenzie Dern’s father.
Ryan Kelly and Harold Utterbach.They are purple belts in this town that we live in, I am a black belt of which I told them.
They invited me to come roll with them, so I did.
And, well, Sonnen quickly realized his Jiu-Jitsu skills didn’t match his supposed rank.
So why did Sonnen claim to be a black belt?
According to him, the idea may have come from legendary wrestler Mark Schultz:
I was told by Mark Schultz that you in Jiu-Jitsu are whatever belt you’re willing to defend, you’re willing to compete at.
If you go to a Jiu-Jitsu tournament you would sign up and you will write your belt down.
If you say: “I am a black belt” and you go out there with black belts and you can have success, you are a black belt.
While Sonnen has since earned a legitimate BJJ black belt under Fabiano Scherner, he wasn’t close to that level during the time of this story.
Reflecting on his younger self, he humorously concluded:
So I’m a fake black belt.
I’m a fake black belt working on Muay Thai with Marcus, I’m wrestling in the U of O.I’ve got this whole thing figured out, I’ll be the UFC champion.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.
