Chael Sonnen has nothing but praise for Conor McGregor despite the fact that he ‘got tired and quit’.
The former UFC middleweight believes The Notorious’ stock has risen after UFC 196.
McGregor tapped out to a Nate Diaz rear naked choke, in the second round, to lose his first fight in the promotion. However, Sonnen is full of admiration for the Dubliner stepping up two weight divisions, and 25lbs, in less than 90 days for the fight.
One aspect of McGregor’s preparations that Sonnen takes exception with was the boisterous presence of Ido Portal, his movement coach.
Portal was accused, by Diaz, of playing “touch butt” in an L.A park with McGregor in the lead-up to the bout. The coach duly responded and Sonnen was not impressed. On Beyond The Fight, he declared:
“Nate says, ‘The last time I saw, he was out in the park’ – and this is a quote – ‘He was out in the park with some butt-grabber swinging pool noodles at him, who had a ponytail’. End quote.
“Well, that is what happened.
“He was in the park with Ido, nice day, and they were doing some movement exercises, whatever the hell that means, with pool noodles. Ido just happens to have a ponytail.
“So, instead of just being happy he was mentioned at a press conference, what’s Ido go and do? He goes onto Facebook and does an entire rant about how good he is at what he does, all these things about Nate and blah, blah, blah.
“Listen, he’s marketing. It’s the right time to do it. Strike while the iron is hot. Nate brought it up, you fire back.
“But you don’t do it if you’re a coach. If you are there to coach, you can not be selfish and try to press your brand.
“You have to be selfless. If you want to be selfish, put in your mouthpiece, strap ’em up and step in there.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BCPz59ZLzid/?taken-by=thenotoriousmma
Sonnen believes McGregor should be wary of Portal’s intentions. He said:
“When a coach comes out and he starts to put himself over, his brand over and starts trying to do marketing for himself, and not his athlete, you have problems. Every single time.
“100% of the time. You have problems. And when that happens, the coach usually doesn’t come back.
“I’ll tell you what Conor’s thinking – ‘Chael is right. What in the hell is that guy putting out interviews to get himself over when I’m the one who has to strap ’em up and get in there? … Let me worry about doing the business, you worry about swinging the pool noodle.”
You can check out the full episode here:
https://youtu.be/rfBvTRz3tIM
