Chael Sonnen recognizes Jorge Masvidal’s acceptance of the “end-of-career battle” with Colby Covington.

According to Chael Sonnen, Jorge Masvidal deserves praise for taking on Colby Covington.

Former best friends turned rivals will finally resolve their feud at UFC 272 in Las Vegas on March 5, and Sonnen sees Covington (16-3 MMA, 11-3 UFC) as a very dangerous opponent for Masvidal (35-15 MMA, 12-8 UFC).

Masvidal may have lost back-to-back title fights to UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, but his star power is undeniable. Masvidal will headline a non-title pay-per-view event for the second time in his UFC career. Sonnen believes a third consecutive loss would be detrimental.

Chael Sonnen applauds Jorge Masvidal for fighting Colby Covington 👏😬 #UFC272 | Full story: https://t.co/Q53QIPBBy2 pic.twitter.com/iP0lTcqy6n

— MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) January 19, 2022

“In all fairness, I’ve really got to show respect to Masvidal because this is a career-ending fight,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel.  “It is that big of a deal.

There will be that much attention and that much focus and that much hatred going into this battle that Jorge – who is the second biggest draw in combat right now, who’s coming off of two defeats – if he goes out there and he gets taken down and he gets mauled for 25 minutes, it is going to take a lot of luster off of the shine that is the second biggest draw, the BMF, Jorge Masvidal.

“It’s a big deal, and Jorge signed up anyway. God damn, I respect that.”

Covington is in a similar situation to Masvidal in many aspects. With two losses to Usman, the former interim champ will need to defeat Masvidal to keep his title ambitions alive.

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