Chael Sonnen is on the verge of his third coaching assignment for “The Ultimate Fighter” and is ramping up the trash talk toward his opposing coach early.
On Season 33 of ‘TUF,’ Sonnen will coach against Daniel Cormier. The two UFC Hall of Famers currently host a show together on ESPN titled “Good Guy/Bad Guy.” Later this year, they will begin filming the UFC’s reality show, and Sonnen is setting the tone with humourous digs at Cormier.
“DC stands for Daniel Cormier and he used to be a fighter,” Sonnen told MMA Junkie. “This guy, he was good. With the takedowns and such, he actually wrestled out in college. … This guy beat Pat Cummins. I mean, this guy is the real deal. Nobody knows who he is.”
Sonnen said he initially misunderstood the assignment when UFC CEO Dana White sent him a text asking if he wanted to be a part of the show.
“I guess I read the text too quickly,” Sonnen explained. “I assumed I was coming in to coach Daniel Cormier. I had no idea they gave him a similar role. But when you get Craig Borsari and (Zach) Candito and you get that real good production team to kind of edit around him in spite of him being there, we can probably have something good. Don’t pretend this is the first time I’ve had to carry a show with Daniel Cormier.”
Sonnen has coached the UFC’s reality series twice before; “TUF: Brazil 3” and “TUF 17.” The former season saw Sonnen coach his team of middleweights and heavyweights to victory over Wanderlei Silva’s group.
That series produced one of the most memorable moments in the show’s history when the infamous “I can’t you get close” line was uttered by Sonnen before brawling with Silva. Naturally, Sonnen found a way to tie in the memories from that season with the upcoming show against Cormier.
“I had a hard time with Wanderlei Silva, and it was with the language barrier,” Sonnen said. “So I had an interpreter, he had an interpreter, and sometimes they didn’t agree and ultimately, they even subtitled the show. Like, communication was a very hard thing.
“With that said, I think that Wanderlei speaks better English than Daniel. I’m not saying like there’s a literacy issue, and I wouldn’t call Daniel stupid. I like him a lot. But if stupid had a cousin, it would be Daniel Cormier.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Chael Sonnen sparks trash talk before ‘TUF 33’: ‘If stupid had a cousin, it would be Daniel Cormier’
