The infamous ‘Chael Sonnen curse’ has been broken.
Mystic Chael
Sonnen is known for his wild predictions ahead of fights, but one underdog pick would finally pay off for the beloved MMA personality. It would start off with the co-main event of UFC 269.
Julianna Pena was doubted by the majority of the MMA world to beat Amanda Nunes, however, not Chael Sonnen. In shocking fashion, Pena would pour it on Nunes, hurting and choking out the champ in round 2.
Sonnen Can’t Believe It
While Sonnen did predict the result, he too, was a bit surprised with the event.
It was a crazy sight to see a dominant force like Nunes stopped, especially in that miraculous manner. Many are led to believe Nunes underestimated the challenger, big time. Some fans would even say Nunes ‘threw’ the fight, which would be illegal.
A Mental Beating
Among the theories, Sonnen shared his two cents on how Nunes lost.
“I can’t believe I got Peña right either,” Sonnen said. “I got to tell you, man, that was a different fight. Like, we’ve seen upsets before. Even if you take Mike Tyson vs. Buster Douglas where Mike is trying to get up, and he just can’t beat the count or when Ronda Rousey got her head kicked into the third row, but she didn’t want it to happen. This was totally different. Amanda flicked it. That was 100 percent mental beating, zero percent physical. That submission wasn’t there.”
“That was not a move.” Sonnen continued. “That was absolutely not a fighting technique. Julianna was in a terrible position, and Amanda quit. That’s OK. Everybody goes through that at some point. I only point that out not to kick her, I point that out because that’s what the surprise was. If she got kicked like Ronda did or knocked out like Mike did, we just chalk it up to a big upset and a glorious night.”
Sonnen puts Nunes vs. Pena as one of the biggest upset in not just the UFC, but in all of combat sports. He thinks the result would come from lack of mental game in ‘The Lioness’.
“To mentally check out and hand it all back in only seven minutes, a bit of a surprise.”
https://youtu.be/IYh5wrGQYjM
