Chael Sonnen rules out appealing against recent loss to Anderson Silva
UFC middleweight trash-talker, Chael Sonnen has today ruled out the possibility of appealing his latest defeat at the hands of 185 pound king-pin, Anderson Silva this past weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada, as well as answering the question, ‘does MMA need an instant replay facility?’
Speaking via MMAFighting.com, Sonnen said:
“Here’s the reality. We don’t do instant replay in this sport and we shouldn’t. It comes down to a judgement call and wherever the referee [Yves Lavigne] says the knee landed officially, that’s where the knee landed. That’s an excellent official, they all are, he made his call and that’s the way it goes and I will never complain or look back.”
“The referee’s judgement is what stands. I trust in that and it works both ways. I’ve thrown knees before, the referee makes his decision, that is the decision and we would never appeal it, except with knees. If we would have a chance to re-do it, that’s a different thing, but we would never go and appeal the decision. Part of competing is you got to know how to lose. It’s really easy to win, but you’ve got to know how to lose. Sometimes you have to man up, swallow it, and walk out.”
When asked what’s next for him in his mixed martial arts career following this latest crushing defeat, Sonnen answered:
“I don’t think any athlete should even begin to talk like that or even think like that. You let about 30 days go by. Anything in life, you don’t want to make a decision based on emotion. You have very big highs and very big lows in this sport. You don’t want to make any drastic decisions. I think it’s an insult to the fans when guys like to come out and say ‘I’m retired.’ What they really mean is ‘Hey, I’ll see everyone in 18 months because I’m coming back.’ I don’t want to see that. When I get to that point in my career I’ll make a statement and never look back.”
“It’s very rare in a competition where a guy will fall apart and come back within the same night. … In my first fight with Anderson, he fell apart, and then at some point he said, you know what I think I can win this thing. And I really admire that in him. I look up to that in an athlete. He does that, Randy Couture does that really well. And Anderson did that in this fight as well. In the first round, he offered very little resistance and he came back strong.”
Fans will remember that Sonnen issued the challenge to Silva back at UFC 136 following his win over Brian Stann that if the two men were to lock it up for a second time and he were to lose he would leave the UFC forever. Now we all know what happened on Saturday night but what we don’t know is whether Sonnen meant it.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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