{"id":224903,"date":"2017-02-25T00:17:23","date_gmt":"2017-02-25T08:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=224903"},"modified":"2017-02-25T00:19:01","modified_gmt":"2017-02-25T08:19:01","slug":"chael-sonnen-opens-up-on-attempt-to-step-in-for-matt-mitrione-against-fedor-emelianenko","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-opens-up-on-attempt-to-step-in-for-matt-mitrione-against-fedor-emelianenko\/","title":{"rendered":"Chael Sonnen opens up on attempt to step in for Matt Mitrione against Fedor Emelianenko"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month at Bellator 172, UFC veteran Matt Mitrione was set to step into the Bellator MMA cage against MMA icon Fedor Emelianenko<\/a> for a highly anticipated scrap that would serve as Emelianenko’s return to the United States following his return to MMA at the end of 2015.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately after months of buildup, training, and anticipation, Mitrione was pulled from the fight just hours before he an Emelianenko were set to throw down due<\/a> to kidney stones that required hospitalization, and will subsequently result in the UFC vet undergoing surgery to deal with the situation.<\/p>\n

\"Fedor<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough, when it was revealed that Mitrione had been pulled from the scrap, former UFC title challenger turned Bellator MMA fighter Chael Sonnen offered to step in on short notice in hopes of bouncing back from his 1st round submission loss to Tito Ortiz earlier this year.<\/p>\n

He spoke to MMAJunkie<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought Coker really went to the next best thing,\u201d Sonnen told MMAjunkie. \u201cI think everybody in that house left happy and with a smile on their face. They deserve a lot of credit for what they did and what they faced less than 24 hours from bell time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was the only guy that offered (to step in), and I was trying to get myself involved there,\u201d Sonnen said. \u201cBellator wanted Oli Thompson. He was on the card, he had already weighed in, and he was going to fight Cheick Kongo. So they wanted to move him from the Cheick Kongo fight to the Fedor fight. We were the only names that were taken to Fedor. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first rule in show business is that the show must go on. I didn\u2019t really think of it as too much of a courageous gesture on my part or anything like that. I\u2019m a fighter; he\u2019s a fighter. I\u2019m there; he\u2019s there. It seemed like pretty simple math to me.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Chael<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com<\/a> on 2\/25\/2017.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month at Bellator 172, UFC veteran Matt Mitrione was set to step into the Bellator MMA cage against MMA icon Fedor Emelianenko for a highly anticipated scrap that would serve as Emelianenko’s return to the United States following his return to MMA at the end of 2015. Unfortunately after months of buildup, training, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":199563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10104,10220],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nChael Sonnen opens up on attempt to step in for Matt Mitrione against Fedor Emelianenko | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chael Sonnen opens up on attempting to step in at Bellator 172 and fight Fedor Emelianemko on short notice after Matt Mitrione pulled out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-opens-up-on-attempt-to-step-in-for-matt-mitrione-against-fedor-emelianenko\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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