5 UFC fighters who had unexpected jobs before making it in MMA
The world of MMA is a tough one to hack in. Often, the fighters take a lot of damage throughout their careers without really achieving much. The intense training, the hard-hitting fights in the Octagon, the weight cutting — it all takes a toll on the body. Despite that, most fighters who choose a career in MMA end up without really making their name in the game.
Then, there are those fighters who make it big and are signed to promotions like the UFC or Bellator. They are the exceptions to the rule, but for most of them, making it to the UFC was a struggle as well.
Unless someone is incredible at fighting in the Octagon, towards the beginning of professional MMA careers, they are not paid too much. In fact, for most of them, a day job to help maintain their lives and to support their fighting career is mandatory.
In this article, we will be talking about five UFC fighters who had unexpected jobs before making it big in MMA.
#5 Chael Sonnen - Real estate agent
Chael Sonnen is recognized as being one of the greatest fighters to have ever entered the Octagon. While his record might not be the best in the history of MMA, his trash talk outside the Octagon always helped to hype up any fight that he was a part of.
Apparently, before Sonnen made it big in the world of MMA, the fighter was still selling products by hyping them up, only that they were not his own fights.
It turns out that Chael Sonnen was a real estate salesman. This suits his personality completely, as Sonnen has been something of a salesman his entire life.
Heading deeper into it, however, it appears that Sonnen stumbled into legal issues in his real estate job. He pleaded guilty to money laundering charges in 2011. As per a Department of Justice statement, Sonnen "admitted that a financial transaction he conducted was designed to conceal or disguise the ownership and control of the proceeds of wire fraud."
While the issue first came up in 2006, it was laid to rest in 2011. As a result of pleading guilty, he was handed a $10,000 fine and a two-year probationary sentence.