Paris – Very few people can analyze the fight game like former UFC middleweight turned combat sports analyst Chael Sonnen, and at Bellator Paris ‘The Bad Guy’ spoke on the face off and press conference between co-main event fighters Cedric Doumbe and Jaleel Willis.
“I never met Cedric on a personal level. So how is he going to behave? I’m not an interviewer. I don’t interview people so I was a little nervous,” Sonnen told Cageside Press following the Bellator Paris press conferene.
“He (Doumbe) might come after me. It’s his spotlight, but I got a reputation too. I don’t anybody left mad at him including Jaleel.”
Doumbe and Willis got heated at the press conference and at face-offs and the two got physical when Willis pushed Doumbe as he hit the scale at ceremonial weigh-ins.
“Cedric has a charm that he put on everybody. I got to say that about Jaleel too. Jaleel was very funny up there, Jaleel was a cool guy, he said the N word at one point. I think that he’d take that one back if he could, but in all fairness Jaleel Willis was a cool guy,” said Sonnen.
Sonnen spent his entire career putting pressure on opponents before, during and sometimes even after his fights, and he explained why that’s important.
“Can I tell you why pressure matters? They never go the extra step to tell the audience why that matters. It matters because it creates stress, and that stress is a chemical release through your body that will lock you up,” he said.
“In a game of cardio it will tire you out. So if you have that pressure that creates that stress and you get that chemical release you will tire out and fatigue before your opponent. That’s why it matters who’s feeling it.”
Watch the entire interview with Chael Sonnen above.
