Chael Sonnen shared his reaction to Ben Askren’s return to competition in a recent interview…
Admitting that news of Askren facing Belal Muhammad didn’t immediately hit him the way he expected.
Here is what he had to say about Askren’s decision:
Makes me uncomfortable. When I read about it the the response was supposed to be excitement. It was supposed to be inspirational…
And I am getting there by the way.It is exciting. It is inspirational – but I was uncomfortable at first.
While reaction to the matchup has been mixed across the wrestling and MMA world, Sonnen pointed to Muhammad as the one taking the real risk:
I thought what a stud Belal Muhammad is for taking this.
I don’t think very many people would have taken this risk.And Belal realized one thing which is if I don’t do this, Ben doesn’t get the opportunity and that part of the story is not being told and it deserves to be told.
He went on to argue that Muhammad has been consistently overlooked in coverage of the fight:
I think that Belal Muhammad has always gotten a bad shake in the media.
I don’t think the media has ever been fair to him and I think that he has never been the star of this contest that Ben Askren is.
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