Chael Sonnen has signed on for one of the stranger trips of his career, and this time nobody is questioning who’s picking up the tab.
The former UFC middleweight title challenger says he’s headed to Russia next week for a wrestling event, and according to him, the invitation didn’t come from a promoter or a gym. It came from the top of the Russian government itself.
“I’m going to Russia next week,” Sonnen told interviewer Matan Even. “I do want to be smart. I do want to be smart. And, but no, I’m getting brought over by Putin. I mean, the actual government is bringing us over, and we’re going for a wrestling event.”
Sonnen didn’t sound worried about the logistics or the optics. If anything, he framed the arrangement as a reflection of how seriously certain countries treat the sport of wrestling compared to how it’s regarded in the United States.
“But wrestlers are treated very different in certain parts of the world. Iran is one of them. Russia is one of them. The government gets involved. So, no. I think that we will be just fine,” Sonnen explained.
What exactly Sonnen will be doing once he lands hasn’t been spelled out. No commentary role, no ceremonial title, no clear job description has been attached to the trip yet. What is clear is that this isn’t the first time his name has been tied to Russian wrestling circles, and it isn’t even the first time he’s helped get an American across that border.
Sonnen has spent years warning the UFC about the wave of talent coming out of the region. Back in 2012, sitting across from Kenny Florian on UFC Tonight, he told anyone who would listen that the promotion needed to slow down on signing fighters from the area or risk losing entire divisions to them.
“I remember warning the UFC, I remember it being in 2012 sitting with Kenny Florian doing UFC Tonight, warning the UFC of the Russian invasion,” Sonnen said. “I was warning them, it’s coming, the Russians are coming and you are our only line of defense. Quit signing these guys. Unless you want a whole bunch of guys coming in with beards and no mustaches taking all your belts away, the only way to stop them is don’t give them the opportunity.”
Years later, that warning reads less like a threat and more like a forecast. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev have gone on to define entire eras of the sport, and Sonnen has kept tabs on all of it, often through a competitive lens.
Ahead of Sean Strickland’s title defense against Chimaev at UFC 328, he cast the American as the final roadblock standing between the sport and total Russian dominance.
“Strickland is the last hope,” he told Ariel Helwani. “He is the last line of defense between the martial arts community and having to watch Chimaev for the next period of time.”
That rivalry talk, though, has never crossed over into how Sonnen feels about the region’s wrestling tradition, which he’s admired for a long time and, in one case, personally funded.
