Chael Sonnen: Guys in MMA Have to be Loved Too Much

Chael Sonnen has never been one to back down from a fight. Whether he believes in the trash talk he dishes out before-hand, one thing is for sure: Sonnen put butts in seats. It didn’t matter if fans wanted to cheer for him or watch him get knocked out; Sonnen sold tickets and made the UFC a lot of money.

“The moment one fight ends, the marketing for the next fight begins, and you have no better opportunity,” Sonnen told MMA Junkie. “This is your market; the audience watching that pay-per-view are the ones you need to speak to more than anybody else, and there’s your chance.”

Sonnen believes that matchmakers like Joe Silva actually like it when you make their job easier. The squeaky wheel gets the grease and he even praises UFC heavyweight’s Ben Rothwell’s attempts of getting noticed. “Feel free to do Dana’s job for him. Feel free to make your case and say who you want to fight, and guys just don’t do it. Even Rothwell — Rothwell came out of his shell, he did a crazy interview, but God bless him, we were all talking about the interview. So there is an effectiveness there.”

Once a fighter starts talking trash, one of the few things that can negate any type of future hype is the fighter admitting they did it to hype the show. “The downside is when they ask him why he did the interview and he says, ‘To get attention.’ To do something for attention, don’t let the curtain down and show everybody that you did it for attention. It takes away from the attention. Just do it. Let the rest of us figure it out. But these guys in MMA have to be loved so much, they can’t stand even the smallest time of not being loved. They can’t stand one negative comment on Twitter, so they try to un-fry that egg constantly. Just come out, say your piece, and walk away. Whatever the result is, the result is. But don’t backtrack, ever.”

Ronda Rousey is one of the few fighters who NEVER go back on their trash talk, and her PPV numbers are steadily growing. Do you think Sonnen has a point?

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