Chael Sonnen has never been one to shy away from his words or his opinion.
The retired UFC veteran spoke with FOX Sports on the topic of politics and how he feels Donald Trump has changed the game.
“I’m a huge supporter of Trump,” Sonnen told FOX Sports. “When people talk about him, I hear all these political analysts, they’re just terrible. That’s another space if I had enough time I would just go and take over because they don’t even know what they’re talking about. They put on their fancy suits, they sit behind their microphones, they collect a paycheck and they don’t know a damn thing about what they’re talking about.
“If Donald Trump’s campaign falls off the cliff tomorrow — and history says that it does. The frontrunner never maintains his lead. History says it falls off the cliff tomorrow and if it does, every pundit out there still loses. Because not one of them predicted he could make it this far. Not one of them predicted he was going to run or that he was going to lead in the polls, or that he could maintain a lead with the smallest fundraising and not accepting money from political action committees. They all lose and he wins.”
Sonnen acknowledged that Trump has been controversial with his history and campaign, but says that is just what changed the world of politics as we know it.
“Whether you agree with him or you don’t, it’s absolutely secondary to the fact that he has courage,” Sonnen said. “I listen to these pundits all the time breaking down Trump — ‘he’s brash and he’s bold and he’s successful’ and none of those are what it is. There’s one word to sum it up and it’s courage. He has courage. There’s a courage in running for president, there’s also a huge ego involved, there’s a few things that you need to be a political candidate.”
“If for nothing else, whether I don’t have a fan in the world or I turn out to be the biggest pay-per-view draw there is, I’m going to be real. Making a comparison to Donald Trump — it doesn’t matter whether you agree with him or don’t, you can’t disagree with what I’m saying that he has changed the way politicians speak,” Sonnen said.
“He has changed the entire dialogue. There were guys who did that in pro wrestling — “Stone Cold” Steve Austin did that in wrestling. It wasn’t as though I was the original, I was just the original in our sport.”