Chael Sonnen is not ready to jump off the Gable Steveson bandwagon.
Sonnen, a former UFC title challenger turned analyst and commentator, is surprised to see many online and in the media lose faith in Steveson (4-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC) following his first professional MMA loss. Steveson was knocked out in just 12 seconds in a massive upset loss to Sean Sharaf at UFC 331 earlier this month. Sonnen has seen the backlash Steveson has received and can't understand it.
"The downfall of Gable Steveson. Where do you go with that, guys?" Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. "Are you hearing that? I mean, that is a narrative that is out there everywhere. This has been like a really rough week on Gable, and we had some meaningful members of the media say he does
not belong in the UFC. Like, this is evidence; this is proof. He should not have been here. There was one media member that said he can beat guys in the UFC. I can see he can beat guys that are in the UFC, that belong in the UFC, but he does not belong here. Just because he can beat guys in the UFC does not mean that he should be in the UFC. Like, they actually made this argument. I'm going, 'Hey, I'm kind of getting lost on your logic here.'"
Sonnen not only believes Steveson belongs in the UFC, but he still thinks highly of him. In fact, he thinks just as highly of him as before his KO loss. Sonnen believes anyone can get caught, and that's what happened at UFC 331. The defeat doesn't take away everything Steveson has done in his combat sports career.
"He won the Olympics, and transitioning to MMA, how long does that take?" Sonnen said. "I have to tell you, I've been nothing but impressed by him. I was impressed when he was over in bareknuckle and got a knockout, then he jumped over the ropes without ever touching him. That was amazing. Joe Rogan sends a text message to Dana White and says the whole division is effed. That's what I saw. That's what I still see. ... It's not as though he hasn't dealt with losses before. It isn't as though he hasn't dealt with losses where a lot of people were watching. He was upset in the NCAA finals in front of the President of the United States, which aired on ESPN, which many say goes down as the largest upset in the history of the sport. Now, whether you want to go that far with it or not. It's rare that this guy gets beaten at anything, but it's not as though he hasn't been beat. The one commonality is that he always gets up."
With all of Steveson's accomplishments aside, Sonnen thinks the way the heavyweight division has reacted to Steveson's loss is also very telling. He doesn't see a line forming for a Steveson fight.
"Not one guy has challenged Gable, and the fight that he just had was a pretty big fight," Sonnen said. "A lot of people were interested in it, and certainly coming out of the UFC, it has been the number one topic. The number one topic has been that match. So whatever Gable does next, very obviously, is going to be big. Whether you're tuning in to see him succeed or fail, either way, we do understand that we're going to be tuning in. As a matter of fact, not only are we interested in Gable, we are at our height of interest in Gable. Whatever he does next, we're going to be most interested in. But not one guy under contract has asked for that opportunity."
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Chael Sonnen explains why he's still high on Gable Steveson, even after KO loss
