Chael Sonnen knows your secret.
That’s because the former UFC middleweight title challenger, who also made a play for light heavyweight gold, is a reformed “scumbag” who knows the ins and outs of gaming
the system. Not surprisingly, Sonnen is familiar with the playbook of former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor, recently suspended for a trio of Whereabouts Violations under the promotion’s current drug testing policy.
Fighters enrolled in the Combat Sports Anti-Doping (CSAD) program must be accessible for on-the-spot drug testing at a moment’s notice. In summer of 2024, McGregor failed to provide his whereabouts — or submit to drug testing — on three separate occasions within a four-month period, resulting in an 18-month suspension (reduced from 24 months) that ends in March 2026.
Just in time for UFC White House.
“Every dog gets one bite,” Sonnen said on YouTube. “Everybody gets a pass. It’s quite literally the reason why they give you three strikes in a calendar year. Everybody’s allowed to be wrong. Everybody’s allowed to be heavy sleeper, just for example. Maybe they come at some part of the day — whatever the excuse might be, you don’t even need to share it. Three is kind of a lot in a 12-month period when your one and only job is to tell them where you are. That’s all that you’re being accused of. You’re not being accused of a substance here, you’re not being accused of anything other than clerically, administratively. Three times in a 12-month period you did not tell us where you were. And for somebody that has as elaborate of a team, I believe they did tell you where they were. I believe the agents were at the right place.”
McGregor is not the first UFC fighter to be suspended for Whereabouts Violations.
“This very thing happened with the notorious story of Jon Jones in the ring,“ Sonnen added. ”That’s a completely true story. They had showed up to where he said that he was, he was not ready for a test, and he went under the ring. That’s a very true story, it’s not folklore. And my vision of what happened here with Conor is something very similar. I’m guessing, but I’m just telling you I believe having this lived this life, I believe they did have his whereabouts. I believe it was accurately updated. I believe he did purposefully not allow them to test him. That’s my belief. I’m not overly upset about it. I’m not overly pointing the finger at Conor. I’m sharing, as a fellow scumbag, some of the psychology that goes in to living that life and trying to stay one step ahead. It’s a great gig until it’s up.”
Sonnen’s gig was up ahead of UFC 175 (and he was in good company).
Jones recently admitted to hiding from drug testers under the cage at the Jackson-Winkeljohn gym after Sonnen snitched on the Joe Rogan podcast. As for McGregor, no explanation has been given for his Whereabouts Violations because “Notorious” — despite all that crap about being the “king of the fight game” — announced a break from social media, presumably to hide from the fallout of his CSAD suspension.
Sonnen, 48, has not competed since falling to Lyoto Machida at Bellator 222 back in June 2019.
