"I thought we were going to have a new champion" - Chael Sonnen reveals thoughts following Israel Adesanya vs. Robert Whittaker rematch
On a new episode of his Beyond The Fight podcast, Chael Sonnen revealed that he thought Robert Whittaker had done enough to take home the belt in his rematch against Israel Adesanya. However, he prefaced this sentiment by stating that he wouldn't personally be in support of a trilogy match.
Chael Sonnen commented on the rematch by saying:
"I wouldn't support it in all fairness. I can't think of anyone Whittaker could fight, beat, or how many times he could beat somebody that I would go hey the fight I want to see is [Whittaker vs. Adesanya] I'm just not. I'm out, and it's not because those weren't great fights, I thought Whittaker beat Adesanya the second time. I thought we were going to have a new champion. I was live in that arena, I was ready for the words and new."
However, Sonnen went on to talk about how Whittaker didn't "do his job" in the lead-up to the fight. Chael explains how part of being a fighter is promoting the fight outside the cage, in which he says Whittaker "double-crossed us". He even provided a vivid example stating:
"I could tell you about that fight. I could tell you about round one. I could tell you the song Robert Whittaker walked out to, how do you like that for a minute? I could not tell you an interview that Robert Whittaker did before that fight. I can tell you interviews that Robert Whittaker refused to do before that fight."
However, Chael's message in this episode isn't to ridicule Whittaker, but rather to encourage him to be more vocal if he wants any chance of having a trilogy with Adesanya.
You can watch the full epsiode of Beyond The Fight with Chael Sonnen below:
Chael Sonnen describes Robert Whittaker's road back to Israel Adesanya as "very hard"
Regardless of whether Chael personally would like to see the trilogy bout, Sonnen does recognize Whittaker's strategy, which he says he "fully appreciates and respects." Whittaker's strategy, as described by Chael being:
"Whittaker has said in his rebuke to Adesanya, I'm going to beat everybody here. I'm going to start scratching names off the list until I'm the only one and then I am going to fight you."
Although Sonnen respects the strategy, he went on to say, "I could only think of three times in the history of the sport in which that has worked." The problem being that the top of the division is dynamic, and the top 10 guys are usually rotating positions. So even if Whittaker is able to beat the other contenders, chances are there will be a constant source of fresh contenders in which he will then need to beat to solidify his claim. Overall, it is not impossible for Whittaker to get his wishes, but Chael is right in describing the road back to gold as grueling.
Rock, paper, scissors. Adesanya won the face off… https://t.co/2yMWUO3qfh