If UFC analyst Chael Sonnen ever doubted Conor McGregor would never fight again, it’s all gone now. The former UFC champion shared a video yesterday, saying he was looking at Michael Chandler vs Paddy Pimblett (UFC 314) with interest. But for Sonnen, it was a sign that the Irishman was never going to do anything of note inside an octagon again.
Sonnen starts his YouTube video by claiming that McGregor has rarely ever put a wrong foot forward in the MMA. But that has now changed. But what is it about the video that forced Sonnen to feel hopeless about the Irishman’s prospects?
“There are signs, and when they happen, your guy isn’t going to win. And if you were to come back and ask me what is the co-relation. I can’t necessarily tell you. But I will tell you – the statement remains true“, he began explaining.
While he was vague, purposefully or otherwise, Sonnen cited Mike Tyson and claimed that the former boxing world champion was also guilty of this particular behavior.
The cardinal sin: “If you ever see an MMA fighter training outside, he’s no longer going to win. His career is over”, Sonnen nodded to himself with conviction.
“Why, when an MMA fighter goes and does a training camp that involves him hitting the mitts outside in the beautiful weather, he’s on the beach or in any fashion… Why is that a death nail?” the former UFC middleweight continued.
According to Sonnen, historically, whenever a combat sports athlete had done so, the sisters of fates have spun their yarns to write their demise inside the ring.
“Listen, I was 12 years old, and Mike Tyson was getting ready to fight. I can’t remember who he was going to fight… But Tyson did his training camp in Hawaii, and my father was furious“, he began citing Tyson’s story in relation to his childhood.
While Sonnen couldn’t remember who Tyson was fighting, he does paint quite a picture of his childhood involving Tyson watch parties.
“Don’t forget, the internet wasn’t around back then… You open up at PPV window on the night of the fight, and they would tell you, who’s in his corner and how they are training and what they have been eating and how fast his mile is…” reminisced the analyst.
However, all that joy soon turned into grief as his father, after betting a ton of money on Tyson, found out that the boxer had been training in Hawaii. Then he dropped the truth bomb of knowledge on his son.
Patrick Sonnen took hold of his 12-year-old son and explained to him that Hawaii had too many distractions. It’s why people went there for vacations. It wasn’t a place one could buckle down and train.
Not an hour later, Tyson had lost the fight.
But it wasn’t the only reason why Sonnen thinks McGregor would lose. There’s more in the video that he had an issue with.
Conor’s backwards ball cap conundrum
The UFC veteran then turned his attention back to Conor and claimed that the second sign he saw that led him to believe McGregor is on the same path was the Irishman wearing a baseball cap backward.
“If you see a fighter wear a ball cap and he’s got it on backwards and he’s hitting mitts as this ball cap collects the sweat so it doesn’t run into his face… that fighter will lose“, Sonnen noted, citing McGregor’s video.
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Notably, McGregor has lost three of his last four fights in the UFC. His last match was a loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in 2021. Looking for revenge for Poirier’s alleged ingratitude, Conor started the fight well, only for his leg to snap in the very first round.
McGregor has since teased fights against former Bellator champion Michael Chandler, BKFC star Jeremy Stephens, and Logan and Jake Paul, among others. The closest any of this had come to fruition was at UFC 303, where he eventually pulled out of the fight with hours to go, citing a toe injury.
His boxing match with one of the Paul brothers allegedly got scrapped due to UFC President Dana White’s inability to concern himself with it, while the Stephens fight is highly unlikely, considering Conor is part owner of the BKFC.
