Former UFC heavyweight turned Podcast host Brendan Schaub claims Chael Sonnen was defending wife in Las Vegas incident over the weekend — or at least her honor.
Brendan Schaub has weighed in on the recent battery charges laid against former UFC contender Chael Sonnen.
Schaub, himself a former UFC heavyweight, has made the transition from fighter to podcast host, analyst, and for some baffling reason, stand up comedian in recent years. During the December 21, 2021 episode of his Below the Belt podcast, Schaub weighed in on the Chael Sonnen incident, claiming to have heard the full story from none other than Sonnen himself.
“I spoke to Chael, asking if he needed anything, bail or whatever. I absolutely love Chael,”
Schaub said to kick off the segment on Below the Belt. “Here’s what happened, is Chael was obviously working and he was with his wife and his wife is a f*cking saint and also a dime piece. And some drunk guy with his girl kept making comments about his wife, saying about her tits, her ass, right in front of him.”
That drew the ire of Sonnen, apparently. Or, as Schaub put it, “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, ’cause you are talking [to] and disrespecting one of the toughest guys on the planet and definitely one of the toughest ever to compete in the UFC or Bellator for that matter. And you’re doing it in front of his face, and there’s gonna be repercussions. And any guy that wouldn’t do that for their girl, ladies, you got a girlfriend.”
Schaub went on to add that the incident will likely only add to Sonnen’s mystique. “I think by Chael doing this, it just adds to the legend of Chael Sonnen. He was protecting his girl. And for that dumbass who got absolutely annihilated by the great Chael Sonnen, you deserved it, man. And that’s what you get. So you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.”
It is not, Schaub reiterated, “a case of Chael hitting his wife like Jon [Jones] did, even though I think they dropped the charges. This is not a case of Chael Sonnen being high and wrecking his Bentley with strippers in the car. This is not the case of Chael, domestic violence in any facet. And I think everyone should hold their judgment to get more details. And I realize you don’t have Chael Sonnen’s number to call and find this stuff out, but there’s a reason why you shouldn’t be guilty by social media, and this is one of those cases.”
Schaub is most likely right on a couple of fronts, in that, if anyone can spin five separate battery charges in a positive light, it’s Chael Sonnen, who could sell flies to a horse. And we don’t know the full story, so judgment by social media is premature. As for Jon Jones, Schaub’s mention of him was sparked by Jones, a longtime rival of Chael Sonnen, going after the former fighter on social media following the incident.
“Chael Sonnen, I’m not gonna sit here and celebrate you getting battery charges against a female last night,” Jones wrote on social media. “That would make me like you, and I’m nothing like you. Instead I will wish your family well, I wish the victims family well.”
In a statement to Cageside Press on Monday, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Public Information Officer Larry Hadfield confirmed that there were five separate victims in the Sonnen incident — but did not reveal the gender of any of those involved.
“Through the course of the investigation, LVMPD officers determined that Chael Sonnen had committed a misdemeanor battery against five separate victims,” Hadfield wrote. “Sonnen was issued a battery citation for each individual victim, then escorted off property. Due to the fact the misdemeanors were committed outside of a police officer’s presence, an arrest was not conducted.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
