Former UFC two-division champion Georges St-Pierre didn’t exactly shake up the combat sports world when he announced his return to competition later this year, but even just an exhibition grappling match is something of a rare event for the MMA legend. After vacating his middleweight title back in 2017, GSP has barely made any motion toward competitive activity.
The closest he came was a briefly rumored exhibition boxing match against Oscar De La Hoya, back in 2021. A fight that ‘Rush’ has claimed Dana White stepped in and personally prevented, since the then 40-year-old was still technically under contract to the UFC. Since then? Nada.
GSP makes return this December with Fight Pass Invitational BJJ
Back in July, during International Fight week, the Canadian superstar made a surprise appearance at a UFC press event, announcing his official comeback. Not to MMA, or boxing, or even Karate, but to the grappling mats.
While now opponent was originally announced for the bout, multiple-time BJJ champion and UFC title contender Demian Maia took to social media in the weeks following the announcement to reveal that he would be facing GSP at the December Fight Pass Invitational event. As of yet, no other bouts have been announced for the card.
Every now and then, something comes up that still does really motivate you. Grappling @GeorgesStPierre will be a huge challenge & great motivation. You GSP are one of the greatest competitors ever, whom I respect a lot. I’m game! Looking forward to competing at @ufc invitational.
“I remember I was with the (UFC) Fight Pass guys and they were trying to ask me for opponents for GSP (Georges St-Pierre), for ideas, and I had no idea who (it) would be,” Craig claimed (transcript via JitsMagazine). “They asked me in the moment, I was like ‘I dunno…’ but I remember obviously I said Khabib (Nurmagomedov). I think they said Khabib wanted 5 million dollars to do the grappling match. I was like ‘whoa, obviously that’s priced himself out there’. Those guys would be cool to see.”
If the Nurmagomedov price tag seems a bit outlandish, it’s worth remembering that the longtime AKA talent has made it clear on multiple occasions since retiring that he has no real interest in returning to the life of a competitive athlete. He even went so far as to take a step back from his burgeoning coaching career, noting the burdens of the constant travel schedule that cornering fighters can require.
“He just doesn’t want to miss being a father,” AKA head coach Javier Mendez said in an interview with Yahoo! Sports. “He talked to me about three weeks ago and told me of his plan and said he planned to talk to the team and inform them of his decision. He’s doing this for the right reasons. He’s a family man and he simply wants to spend more time with his family.”
Fight Pass Invitational 6 takes place on December 14th at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more grappling event coverage as the fight date approaches.
The longest reigning champion in UFC welterweight history is set for something of a comeback. No fans won’t get to see GSP back in the Octagon, and there hasn’t been one word about that potential boxing match with Oscar De La Hoya that Dana White stopped from moving forward. But Georges St-Pierre is returning to combat sports competition this coming December with the UFC’s Fight Pass Invitational grappling series.
To date, the UFC has run four high profile grappling events on their Fight Pass streaming platform. Their most recent card, back on June 29th, featured grappling star Craig Jones taking on Felipe Pena in the main event, alongside former Octagon foes Glover Teixeira vs. Anthony Smith.
Georges St-Pierre announces grappling return at UFC 290
During the UFC 290 media day on Thursday, July 6th, Georges St-Pierre made a surprise appearance with a big announcement. He would be entering his first competitive combat sports event since his second retirement from the UFC back in 2017.
We’ve really gone six whole years without a GSP fight of any sort. But that all ends in December.
“I’m 42-years-old and it gives me—because I felt at the end, when I retired, I was training, but I needed some—I like the kick of competition,” GSP explained to a small crowd of media members and fans. “I’d like to get it back, and I’d like to feel the adrenaline again. I think it’s also an avenue for fighters who still want to compete and make money and have fun with the fans and the family of the UFC.”
While no opponent has been announced as of yet, St-Pierre is set to return on December 14th at Fight Pass Invitational 6. In fact, as of yet. GSP is the only athlete announced for the grappling card.
‘Rush’ has competed once before in submission grappling competition, when he made a run at the 2005 ADCC tournament. GSP defeated Otto Olson in the opening round of the 77kg bracket, via points, before getting submitted by future Ultimate Fighter Brazil winner Leonardo Silva via flying armbar in the second round.
As for MMA, the now 42-year-old last competed back in 2017, when he returned from four years away from the Octagon to take on then middleweight champion Michael Bisping. GSP defeated Bisping via technical submission in round 3 to secure his second UFC title in his first ever fight up in a new division. Shortly after winning the belt, however, the Canadian superstar vacated the title, citing heath concerns. He officially announced his retirement from MMA in 2019.
We’ve heard a lot of talk lately about the problems with steroids in competitive jiu jitsu, but it seems like we may have just witnessed a prime case of roid rage on the mats. Either that, or some guy at a Los Angeles grappling tournament is just crazy to the max.
Combat sports analyst Ryan A Wagner turned a bit of competition wildness into a viral video moment, with a clip from the July 1st Jiu Jitsu World League competition in LA (h/t MMAFighting). In the line of matches running up and down the arena floor, two competitors can be seen in one of the center mats. One on top, the other on his back, grappling from guard.
The bottom grappler throws up a triangle choke, gets it over the shoulder and locks his feet behind his opponent’s neck. That’s when the top man decides that he’s not going to take that kind of nonsense sitting down.
BJJ guy lands wicked powerbomb through Spanish announcer’s table
Slams of any sort are banned from Jiu Jitsu World League competitions from the jump, so the moment our righteous protagonist decides to pick his foe up off the mat, he’s already in foul territory, but for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. With the match slipping away from him, he decides he might as well go out with a flourish, lifting his opponent into the air, running him over to a nearby table and dropping him through it. Kevin Nash would be proud.
Check out the video below:
Some dude at a BJJ competition powerbombed his opponent through the announce table lmao pic.twitter.com/vKhpAdLCJQ
As of yet, the competitors in the video have not been identified. But NXT fans should keep their eyes peeled, because someone might be getting a developmental contract.
Memories of Slampage
Of course, any powerbomb that well executed in the combat sports sphere is going to bring back memories of Rampage Jackson‘s wicked knockout over BJJ ace Ricardo Arona at Pride Critical Countdown 2004. At a point in his career where the future UFC champion was better known for his high octane throws than any other part of his game, Jackson followed Arona into his guard and quickly got himself wrapped up in a triangle.
For most fighters, that would have been a signal to disengage and get out of danger. For Jackson, it was all he needed to create one of the coolest and most singularly memorable KOs in MMA history.
The UFC’s newest middleweight signing has the hardcore MMA fan community hyped. Sharabutdin Magomedov is Dagestan’s latest MMA export. A 29-year-old talent with a perfect 11-0 MMA record, with ten of those wins coming inside the distance. He’s also already made a reputation as a man prone to violent outbursts.
“One has to understand the situation, in Makhachkala there are unwritten rules, a kind of moral code of our own,” Magomedov explained of the incident. “In Moscow it is acceptable [to show affection in public], but with us it is not acceptable. I could not shut up”.
Sharabutdin Magomedov in trouble again
News broke that the GOR MMA talent had signed with the UFC back in December of last year, with his manager, Ali Abdelaziz confirming the reports. More recently rumors have been swirling that Magomedov is being penciled in for a high profile Octagon debut at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. Potentially against top-ranked UFC middleweight Derek Brunson. Whether or not that bout actually comes to fruition fans should expect to see the Russian back in competition soon… provided he stays out of trouble.
To keep busy and to keep himself in fighting shape, Magomedov recently competed at the ADCC Southeast Asia tournament, where he had a grappling match against Poland’s Jakub Bilko. At one point, with Magomedov on top, looking to stack his opponent, Bilko rolled for a heel hook. After a few seconds of twisting and adjusting on the mat, Magomedov was forced to tap.
Shara Bullet got into a scuffle in Thailand at the ADCC Southeast Asia tournament
Shara Bullet was caught by a heel hook and then made a hand movement that looked like a tap. When Bilko let go of his leg, Shara jumped on him and kicked him. The victory was awarded to the Pole. pic.twitter.com/rD9NpgW1EZ
After tapping, Magomedov was clearly unhappy and exchanged words with Bilko before kicking him and walking away.
Sharabudtin Magomedov shares his side of the story
What was behind the incident? In a video interview with the Ushatayka YouTube channel, the fighter gave his side of the story. Notably, despite a big stage like the ADCCs, this was Magomedov’s first time in a grappling competition.
“I signed up for the entry level,” Magomedov explained (transcript via fight.ru). “It was my first grappling competition. I came to the tournament, and they told me that since I am a professional fighter, they can throw me into blue belts. I went and signed up for the blue ones. And in the end they take me and throw me into black belts. I signed up for 90 kg, and they threw me into black belts up to 100 kg. Just crossed out of both sections and thrown into black belts.
“I thought I’d fight, no big deal. A Pole was drawn for the semi-final bout. [Coach] told me not to fight him, he does twisting of the heel, this is a big risk, the ankle takes a long time to heal. You can drop out of competition for six months or a year.”
Despite the trepidation, about weight, level of competition, and potential for injury. Magomedov was prepared to go ahead, and tried to strike up a deal with his opponent before hand: No leg attacks. Despite both sides seemingly in agreement, it seems all bets were off once the bout actually started.
“Then, at the entrance to the arena, I ran into these Poles,” Magomedov revealed. “I went up to him and asked: ‘Do you understand Russian?’ He says, ‘Yes, I understand a little.’ We agreed [to grapple] with him without ‘heels.’ I thought that if he agreed so, then I would fight. He agreed. Then he approached one of the coaches and complained about me. He asked me what I want from him. I called a friend, asked him to explain to him in English, because maybe he misunderstood me, thought that I was running into him.
“Then a friend approached me and said that the Pole agreed and 100% would not twist my legs. I go to the fight, and he immediately lies on his back, does not fight with me, but immediately lies on his back. I attacked him from above—and he immediately goes on his leg. Scoundrel. This made me angry. The will to fight is gone. He acted wickedly. I got up angry and called him an asshole. I got angry, I was emotional.”
What’s the lesson?
It’s not hard to see the logic here of why Magomedov was angry. He thought he’d made an arrangement, but his opponent went back on the deal. It also seems like a pretty tragic misunderstanding of the nature of grappling and of competition. For Magomedov, this ADCC event was a chance to get experience and do some light work in prep for the UFC. But there’s no reason anyone else there should be treating the event the same way.
Clearly the fighter got thrown in way over his head, as can happen with grappling competitions where a limited pool of athletes means that last minute consolidations are made to get people matchups and to keep events together. But it also seems like—at the point Magomedov was asking his opponent to change the rules just for him—he probably shouldn’t have been there at all.
If a competition like this one were a higher profile combat sports event, this would be closer to fight fixing than a friendly gentleman’s agreement. And revealing a weakness to an opponent looking to win is more an invitation for them to take an easy victory than it is a way to create a level playing field.
Hopefully Magomedov can manage his expectations and his temper in the future, or his time in the UFC could be as short as it is eventful.
The last few years have seen a number of high profile MMA fighters make the jump over to boxing. Everyone from Conor McGregor to Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz; hell even Ben Askren laced up a pair of gloves to test his mettle inside the ring. Given the potential for larger purses and higher profile bouts, it’s little wonder that so many combat sports athletes look to boxing as an opportunity they can’t pass up.
With that dynamic in play, it’s also no surprise that we rarely see fighters going the opposite direction. James Toney made a notable spectacle of himself back in 2010 against Randy Couture. He’s pretty much the start and end of the conversation when it comes to notable boxers who have set foot inside the UFC’s Octagon.
“You know what I’m willing to do?” Garcia teased. “I really haven’t said this out loud but what I plan to do is—say, at 26, I’m done retired and boxing is all good. You know what I’ll do? If they say, ‘Okay, you’ve beaten everybody in the ring, right?’ But somebody goes, ‘This ain’t real fighting. Real fighting is legs, choking, submission, all that.’ Guess what I’ll do? I’ll go prove to them that I’m the best fighter all around in the world. I’m talking about hands, I’m talking about wrestling. I will go to MMA to prove a point that God is greatest and I’ll beat whoever in MMA that they say I won’t beat. If it has to be Conor McGregor, I will. And I’m not saying this to get money. I don’t care about money. I’m saying this because that’s just how I feel.”
He’s still got a couple years to go before its time for the rubber to meet the road, but it at least appears that Garcia is still interested in making good on his proclamation. In a recent video uploaded to the Gracie Breakdown YouTube channel, Rener Gracie walked Garcia through his first BJJ class. Check out some highlights from the lesson below.
For the moment, Garcia’s focus is still firmly on his boxing career. Unbeaten at 23-0, ‘KingRy’ is expected to compete in a 136 lb. catchweight bout against WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis on April 15th. There won’t be any titles on the line for the bout, with Garcia otherwise competing in the 140 lb. light welterweight division in the future.
Even if fans can’t expect to see him in the Octagon anytime soon, it seems like Garcia is laying the groundwork for some exciting moves somewhere further down the line.
It’s looking less and less likely that Maia will be getting that final farewell UFC bout he’s been looking for. The former world champion grappler and multiple time title contender recently revealed that he was aiming for a bout against Donald Cerrone or one of the Diaz brothers as one last bout in his UFC (and likely MMA) career.
Even after Dana White suggested the 43-year-old’s time with the promotion was probably over after his loss to Belal Muhammad, Maia seemed to still be holding out some hope that he and the UFC could come to terms.
“It has happened other times, we’ve all seen it before, the company changing their stance and plans. It depends a lot on what happens in the market,” Maia told MMA Fighting recently, adding that he hoped the UFC would be able to return to Brazil for a card sometime in the not too distant future.
The chances of that seem just that much slimmer, however, following reports that Maia has not only fought out his contract with the world’s largest MMA promotion, but that the UFC’s latest round of updates to their online roster included the removal of Maia’s profile from their “Active” section. It’s a move that usually means an athlete’s time in the Octagon has come to a final close.
MMAJunkie’s John Morgan reported the news, along with the removal of longtime ranked bantamweight contender Jimmie Rivera. Those reported roster trimming moves are also joined by flyweights Ryan Benoit and Jerome Rivera, along with longtime lightweight action fighter Yancy Medeiros and recent featherweight signing Justin Jaynes—who gained notoriety for betting his entire fight purse on himself for a recent bout. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more news and updates on all the UFC’s moves.
For the past couple years now, Gordon Ryan has been teasing a move to MMA. The world class grappling talent has won the ADCCs and the IBJJF Worlds as a no-gi competitor, but speaking to Luke Thomas on the MMA Hour back in 2019, he made it clear that the next step has always been to go into MMA and prove his talents in the cage as an elite competitor.
“Gi is just not as exciting for me,” Ryan said when asked about what the next horizon would be after achieving so much success as a no-gi grappler. “I don’t want to invest time into something that’s not as fun as MMA, which is my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal was always to be the best in MMA, not the best in grappling.”
And while the COVID-19 pandemic no doubt slowed the potential jump to a new sport, it appears Gordon is now finally ready to take the plunge. The Gordon Ryan and John Danaher trained 25-year old has been announced as the latest sigining for Singapore-based MMA promotion ONE Championship. President Chatri Sityodtong announced the news via his Twitter account on Monday, March 22nd.
BREAKING NEWS: Gordon Ryan has signed with ONE Championship for both mixed martial arts and submission grappling!
ONE has provided a jumping off point for other notable grapplers in the past and currently sports other notable BJJ talents including Tom DeBlass, Marcus Buchecha, Yuri Simoes, and – of course – Gary Tonon. Tonon made his own jump over to MMA with ONE back in 2018, and is currently 6-0 competing with the promotion. No doubt as one of the world’s largest mixed martial arts platforms, ONE will be hoping to see similar success out of Ryan.
No word yet on when Ryan’s debut will be, or against whom.
Perhaps no UFC champion since Brock Lesnar has run up the ranks to a title with so singular a skill set. To date, over three years and nine fights in the Octagon, Israel Adesanya has attempted three takedowns and three submissions, completing none of them. Over the same stretch he’s thrown 1166 strikes, landing 606 (a 52% clip), resulting in eleven knockdowns. Who Adesanya is in the cage, and what he brings to the table, couldn’t be clearer.
But, the champ appears to be looking to change that reputation. Over on his Instagram page, the middleweight king revealed that he’d recently received his purple belt from BJJ master Andre Galvao. “Although initially I didn’t feel like I deserve this. I trust his judgement and feel I have earned this,” Adesanya wrote in a post showing off his new Jiu Jitsu hardware.
And in an interview with MMA Fighting, the City Kickboxing talent talked about his work in the grappling realm—along with his hope that, sooner or later, he gets a chance to tap someone in the cage.
“I hope they start shooting on me more cause I want to choke somebody out,” Adesanya revealed. “I mean people were shooting on me at the beginning of my UFC career, and then they realized, ‘We can’t be doing that, f-ck it let’s strike, oh we can’t do that [either].’”
“They should go back to shooting on me again,” Adesanya added, speaking of the recent lack of wrestling-focused attacks on his game, “cause I’ve got some tricks that I want to use.”
At the moment, the ‘Last Stylebender’ is gearing up for a move to light heavyweight, and a crack at newly crowned 205 lb champion Jan Blachowicz. While not averse to a wrestling or grappling attack, the ‘Prince of Cieszyn’ has mostly avoided ground battles over the past couple years, with only one attempted takedown in his last five fights.
Will Blachowicz switch up the narrative from his recent performances, and try to put Adesanya on his back? Or will he be yet another opponent who decides that his best path to beating the Nigerian-born New Zealander comes through a striking contest? Sooner or later, someone’s got to try and challenge Adesanya’s newly minted grappling chops.
The Gracie family’s connections to law enforcement in the US aren’t exactly new, but they just became a lot more official. Official Gracie BJJ websites offer whole sections on training for law enforcement, including online courses, certification, and other tools to help create and maintain a relationship between law enforcement officers and the Gracie brand of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
So perhaps it’s only natural that one of the Gracie clan’s most notable representatives, former 3x UFC tournament champion and hall of famer Royce Gracie, would take the next step and actually join the force. Well, more or less. The Idaho State Journal reports that Royce Gracie, along with longtime TV and film actor Dean Cain (of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman fame), have both been officially sworn in as reserve officers for the Pocatello Police Department.
“C.A.C.F. joins forces with communities to provide support to local police departments and schools; to provide more training and resources. Additional contributions include donation and installation of door locks to prevent active shooters in schools and adoption and training of department K9.”
In a statement to the Idaho State Journal, Gracie explained his own reasons for becoming a reserve officer and how he hopes to make use of his new position.
“I love to help the police officers whenever I can,” Gracie said. “At home in LA, when I leave the house I surely hope the police know what they are doing so if I can help them out in any way, I will.”
Gracie also spoke a little bit about the current climate of hostility between police officers and citizens in many major cities around the United States, following the recent murder of George Floyd by an officer in Minneapolis. Gracie urged that people should place their trust in the police and that the actions of a few aren’t representative of policing in general.
“What I heard from the chief today, these guys are heading in the right direction. But they have been doing it right in this area for a long time already. This is not something new for them. Because one officer screws up doesn’t mean that all of them are bad. We are all humans. We have to have trust in the system.”
Chael Sonnen has never been a man shy about skirting the rules. So it’s not terribly surprising that, amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he’s been doing whatever he can to keep his Submission Underground competitive grappling events alive. The first card took place back in 2016, with Jake Shields defeating Chris Lytle in the main event. In the years since, his promotion has played host to BJJ notables like Gilbert Burns, Dillon Danis, Vinny Magalhaes, Gordon Ryan, and many others.
In a suddenly sports starved landscape, Sonnen finds himself providing one of the only remaining live competition events—both for fans looking for entertainment, and athletes looking to make a buck. All in the face of a medical crisis that has already resulted in the deaths of more than 35,000 people in the US alone. One that has medical professionals almost unanimously urging social distancing and self-isolation measures to prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.
And while the ‘American Gangster’ is still set on marching ahead, in a recent interview with Bloody Elbow, he acknowledged the dangers in doing so. As well as giving a little more insight into just why he feels it’s important to keep trying to find ways to stay in business. And what it would take to close the doors on his operation, if push came to shove.
“I’ll tell you what, as few as possible,” Sonnen said, when asked about ‘bringing people together’ in the midst of a pandemic. “But, at some point, yes those boys do put their hands on one another. I will share this with you, it was so challenging to try to—you’ve gotta understand, I’m a reactor, the same as you’re a reactor. Somebody else goes and decides, you gotta do what they decide. So, you’re taking all these opinions, but they kept changing.
“The very first thing that we had happen, in our state, was 250 people. That got cut to 100 people. That got cut to 50 people. We went from 50 to 10, and then it goes from 10 to 8. Oh my goodness, this is so hard. This is so challenging to get it all done. But they settled in on 8. I’ll tell you, you’ll think this is interesting: when they went to 8 – they’re gonna change it again – so we went to 4, on our own. We go, ‘Okay, let’s just go to 4.’
“So we literally had a show and there was nobody in the room aside from 4 people,” he continued. “Everybody else had to leave, even the athletes. The athletes, you know, they want to see the main event, they wanna watch Craig Jones. Nope. You have to leave. We literally put it in the contract. You get done with your match, you leave. Go watch it on Fight Pass. And they did it. The guys did it, the guys were cool. But, it was—man, it was hard.”
Over the course of the conversation, the longtime Team Quest athlete did admit, that if the government came knocking and asked him to shut down, he would. “I can talk as tough as I want about it, but if somebody came forward and said, ‘Hey, we don’t want you to do this.’ Okay, we’re not going to. We’re not going to push back.”
However, for the moment, much of what Sonnen has been hearing is praise—both for the product being aired, and for the measures he’s taken. Measures like allowing no more than 4 people in a room, and disinfecting all surfaces between matches. And in that climate, he sounds very headstrong about staying the course.
“Oh, no. No, we’re moving forward,” Sonnen said, firmly. “And it’s not really the way somebody would assume. For example, the chokeholds and the armbars, that’s really not what we’re doing here. What we’re doing here is a psychology. We’re proving a point: we never back down.
“We as a community, we’ve had to deal with discrimination, we’ve had to deal with sexism. I mean, right? Before Ronda Rousey came along, ‘Girls can’t come in this.’ We’ve had to deal with laws; we had to go hide out in places. I’m just saying, if you look at this thing as a whole—one thing is that we do not stop.
“That is one thing about this community, whatever the consequence, by the way. By the way, whatever the consequence—I don’t pretend for you that I know. But we will, on an ideal—it’s not about armlocks, it’s damn sure not about money, it’s not about championships. This is an ideal: we take on whatever challenge there is, and we go forward.”
Of course, within the climate of a pandemic, the potential consequence is that people will fall ill. Perhaps even die. Combat sports are always on the defensive about the potential dangers presented to their competitors, it’s a core part of the landscape. For his part, Sonnen is adamant that they’ve taken every precaution possible to make his events safer. But, he’s not going to avoid the fact that there’s risk involved. And if things really went wrong, well…
“You went a little deep on me there, I didn’t know you were going to ask that question, but that would not be good. Life would not be good for me. I would not be proud of myself. I can tell you that.” Sonnen admitted, when asked about the potential of facing a worst case scenario as a result of one of his events.
“And on all levels, really. Let’s say we get this damn COVID thing—the biggest coward ever, taking on women and children and won’t even show its face. Just a cowardly, cowardly thing. It’s a coward, it attacks you from the back, it’s not fair. But, I will share this with you, let’s take that out of it. When I put on mixed martial arts events, I’m aware that there’s contact. So, I’m aware of this. I’m not a prude about this. I’m also not proud of this. I know what it is. Even aside from the virus we gotta deal with, that’s a very real concern. I would never want to be a part of anything that hurt somebody.”
Unfortunately, realistically, the steps that don’t show any signs of being taken are testing and quarantine. Sonnen said that athletes fly in for his events the day before and leave the day after. Even if they may have been asked (or told) to self-isolate afterward, there’s not much way to make sure they follow through on those guidelines. And getting proper testing, sadly, is an issue all over the country—with supplies still limited, and labs seemingly hampered by the limited volume they can handle. But the problem of testing is one that the ESPN personality doesn’t necessarily see as being of primary importance.
“Now that’s a tough one too. I’ve heard a lot of people say that same thing,” Sonnen responded when asked about the importance of testing in allowing people to exit isolation measures. “I kinda scratch my head about it. Okay, what am I missing here? You want to test somebody for something that you openly admit you don’t have a cure for. What’s the point of the test? And then the test gets funny too, because somebody will go get tested and say, ‘Yeah, I don’t have it. I’m good.’ No, no, excuse me. You didn’t have it three days ago when you submitted the test. What’s that got to do with three seconds ago? Nobody has it until they have it. I’ve even seen politicians do that. ‘No I had a test, it’s all good. I guess I got lucky here.’ What’s that got to do with right now!?”
And while he does agree that it might be necessary to convince people who aren’t taking proper steps that they need to self isolate – and perhaps that he’s being a bit more cavalier than is sensible for those who are immunocompromised or find themselves in an age group especially susceptible to the worst effects of the virus – Sonnen also revealed that he and his family have already gone through their own bout with COVID-19.
“That’s one side of it. I come from a different side, because I had it,” Sonnen revealed. “My whole family had it. So, I come to you from a different side, which is: hey, once you get through those 14 days and you have an immunity for life? I mean, you can run and hide if you want. Or, you can go deal with it and get through those 14 days. You don’t really have a whole lot of other options.”
For the moment, Submission Underground 13 is set for April 26th. The event is set to feature a grappling battle between Craig Jones and Vinny Magalhaes. And unless something changes drastically in the next two weeks, it seems likely the event will go ahead as planned.
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