{"id":287940,"date":"2018-10-12T15:24:41","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T22:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=287940"},"modified":"2018-10-12T15:24:41","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T22:24:41","slug":"video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"VIDEO | Chael Sonnen slams heavyweight division, &#8216;heavyweights suck&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/MMAjunkie\/status\/1050603228079915008?s=19<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cI think it discredits all the heavyweights completely [if Ryan Bader and I make it to the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix].\u00a0The best thing to do with heavyweights is to keep them the hell [away] from any other weight class. They\u2019re the worst athletes in the room, they\u2019re the slowest guys in the room. They\u2019re the laziest guys in the room \u2013 which is why they weigh so goddamn much.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>If you want to keep the mystique going on to the public that size matters and that the big guys are better, just because they\u2019re bigger&#8230;if you want to keep that false narrative out there, keep us, real athletes, away from the heavyweights. I think it was a risky move. They tried it on the other side of the tracks, and a light heavyweight now has that strap, too. Yeah, heavyweights suck, [Matt] Mitrione is right.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix will be deciding its finalists tonight at Bellator 207 and tomorrow night at Bellator 208.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining participants and their matchups are as follows: Tonight Matt Mitrione will be taking on the current Bellator light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader to see who faces off for the vacant heavyweight crown against tomorrow night&#8217;s headliner featuring the legendary Fedor Emelianenko and three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen.<\/p>\n<p>Never being one to keep quiet and not voice his opinion, Sonnen came into the tournament as the only fighter to have ever competed at 185-pounds in the middleweight division which is where he made his name and earned two of his UFC title shots against Anderson Silva.<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to fighters that aren&#8217;t natural heavyweights in the tournament, along with Sonnen there is Bader who is the champion in the division below. And seeing that the pair has made it to the semi-finals, there may be\u00a0<em>some\u00a0<\/em>truth to Sonnen&#8217;s comments. Perhaps even more so if he and Bader do wind up facing off with each other after this weekend concludes.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>This article first appeared on <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\">BJPenn.com<\/a> on 10\/12\/2018<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>https:\/\/twitter.com\/MMAjunkie\/status\/1050603228079915008?s=19 \u201cI think it discredits all the heavyweights completely [if Ryan Bader and I make it to the finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix].\u00a0The best thing to do with heavyweights is to keep them the hell [away] from any other weight class. They\u2019re the worst athletes in the room, they\u2019re the slowest guys in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54445,"featured_media":278958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10104],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>VIDEO | Chael Sonnen slams heavyweight division, &#039;heavyweights suck&#039; | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix will be deciding its finalists tonight at Bellator 207 and tomorrow night at Bellator 208.\" \/>\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\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VIDEO | Chael Sonnen slams heavyweight division, &#039;heavyweights suck&#039; | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix will be deciding its finalists tonight at Bellator 207 and tomorrow night at Bellator 208.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-10-12T22:24:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chael-Sonnen-3.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Drake Riggs\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/DrakeRiggs_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Drake Riggs\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Drake Riggs\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/cb9453802ca47ce42b30bfa92ade0bc7\"},\"headline\":\"VIDEO | Chael Sonnen slams heavyweight division, &#8216;heavyweights suck&#8217;\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-12T22:24:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-12T22:24:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\"},\"wordCount\":357,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Bellator\",\"Chael Sonnen\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\",\"name\":\"VIDEO | Chael Sonnen slams heavyweight division, 'heavyweights suck' | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-10-12T22:24:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-12T22:24:41+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix will be deciding its finalists tonight at Bellator 207 and tomorrow night at Bellator 208.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/video-chael-sonnen-slams-heavyweight-division-heavyweights-suck\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Bellator\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"VIDEO | Chael Sonnen slams heavyweight division, &#8216;heavyweights suck&#8217;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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