"I could beat him with a flip-flop" - Chael Sonnen's son Thero shares hilarious take about Jorge Masvidal
Chael Sonnen's son Thero gave his take on a potential fight between his father and Jorge Masvidal. Sonnen is set to fight former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva in a professional boxing match. However, he has been engaged in an online feud with Masvidal, who is set to come out of retirement to fight Nate Diaz in a boxing match on July 6.
Sonnen re-ignited his rivalry with Masvidal during a recent media interaction. The 47-year-old expressed the desire to fight Masvidal after handling the business with Silva on June 15. He then shared his thoughts on Masvidal as a potential next opponent:
"I'm going to beat up Anderson here and I'm going to beat Jorge Masvidal. There's not much of a fight. I can't say I'm going to fight Jorge Masvidal. Fight involves resistance. There will be no resistance with Jorge Masvidal because he is terrible." [0:01]
Chael Sonnen said that his son Thero, who was present during the media interaction, would be in his corner for the Silva fight and has started training himself. While interacting with Thero on stage, Sonnen asked what he thought of Masvidal. Thero replied:
"I could beat him with a flip-flop."
Catch the interaction below (2:28):
Chael Sonnen gives his prediction for Anderson Silva fight
Chael Sonnen challenged Anderson Silva for the UFC middleweight title on two occasions. While Sonnen came dangerously close to walking away with a dominant unanimous decision victory before succumbing to a late submission in the first fight, Silva scored a brutal second-round TKO win in the rematch.
Sonnen will attempt to avenge the losses in the boxing realm this Saturday. He gave his prediction for the fight in the aforementioned media interaction while highlighting his learnings from the MMA fights against Silva:
"My plan, I'm going to be out there a while. I'm not going to go out there and knock him out with my power. There's an expression in boxing but it's very true - 'If you look for the knockout, you will not win a decision.' That was a mistake I made in the MMA fights. There was an urgency to get him down because I did not want to be stuck on my feet with him."
He added:
"I will be able to calm that this time. With the bigger gloves, I will be able to calm that. But I'm not going to go out there and think that I can put a pressure on him and make him quit. I've tried that's not the strategy to beat Anderson." [0:47]
Silva had a major advantage in the striking realm during his MMA fights with Sonnen. However, Chael Sonnen's grappling threat blunted a lot of his striking techniques. It will be interesting to see how Sonnen performs in the absence of grappling.