Saturday night was quite possibly the last time we will ever see Chael Sonnen compete in MMA.
After he was soundly beaten at UFC 159, Chael's rhetoric was transformed. He was now somber and reflective. Gone was the showman. All that remained was the man behind all the hyperbole. The real Chael. The Chael we saw on the Ultimate Fighter. During his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, Chael stated that "I'm not going to be one of the guys to hang around, if there isn't a road to the title then this sport isn't for me. I believe that was probably my last opportunity". In my book, those are some retiring words.
As is always the case when there is a high profile retirement, we instantly begin the process of dissecting their career. Usually through rose-tinted glasses. So how will we remember Chael Sonnen the fighter? If we are to ignore the persona and simply concentrate on his fighting accolades, then Chael may be remembered as MMA's nearly man.
Chael's failure to capture the light heavyweight belt against Jon Jones meant that he has come up short in all three of his UFC title fights.
His time in the WEC yielded a similar story. In 2007, Chael fought Paulo Filho for the title and was submitted in the second round. Then, the following year he got another chance to challenge Filho. Despite winning the fight, he did not capture the title because Filho missed weight, deeming it a non-title fight. In case you aren't keeping count, that is five chances to win a world championship and five times Chael has gone home empty handed.
Unfortunately for Chael, he seems to possess that annoying knack of just falling short in all of his endeavors. That could be due to a mental fragility or maybe his talent is just not at a championship level. We can speculate all we want but ultimately it is irrelevant, he came second every time and that is all that counts.
So assuming Chael does indeed decide to retire, his career will be one of a world class fighter who narrowly failed at the final hurdle.
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