{"id":288826,"date":"2018-10-21T14:27:54","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T21:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=288826"},"modified":"2018-10-21T14:27:54","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T21:27:54","slug":"chael-sonnen-lists-the-fighters-he-considers-the-best-heavyweights-in-mma-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-lists-the-fighters-he-considers-the-best-heavyweights-in-mma-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Chael Sonnen lists the fighters he considers the best heavyweights in MMA history"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last weekend, in the main event of Bellator 208, former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen was stopped in the first round by heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko.<\/p>\n<p>Post-fight Sonnen was <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-fedor-emelianenko-after-bellator-208-ive-never-been-ground-and-pounded-like-that\/\">quick to offer praise to Emelianenko<\/a>. In fact, Sonnen says he considers Fedor Emelianenko the best heavyweight in MMA history, while he also considers Fabricio Werdum and Josh Barnett frontrunners in that debate.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The MMA Hour: Episode 453 (w\/ Cormier, Poirier, Sonnen, Chiesa)\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rgftoSEAALE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p id=\"t5BzMW\">\u201cI have it down to three,\u201d said Sonnen recently on The MMA Hour (transcript via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/2018\/10\/21\/17986396\/chael-sonnen-ranks-fedor-emelianenko-as-greatest-mma-heavyweight-cain-velasquez-took-himself-out\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMA Fighting<\/a>). \u201cMy three might surprise you and I actually enjoy this topic. I have Fedor in the conversation, I have Werdum in the conversation but I I\u2018m always surprised people don\u2019t say Josh Barnett\u00a0in that conversation. I feel like they weren\u2019t watching back in 1999 and 2002 and 2003.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"fWF3pU\">\u201cSo I have those three guys. What order do you want to do it? I would probably put Fedor at number one. I love the debate, but for me it\u2019s down to those three.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another fighter that is often mentioned when debates about MMA&#8217;s best heavyweight arise is former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez. While Chael Sonnen considers Velasquez one of the best, he says the former champ&#8217;s stretch of inactivity rules him out of the debate.<\/p>\n<p id=\"uO449k\">\u201cI think Cain took himself out\u201d Sonnen said. \u201cHow disrespectful, but Cain sits in the locker room to much to put him on that list. He had some fantastic moments and I\u2019m not sure there was anybody alive that could beat him. But all we can do is discuss that because just didn\u2019t walk out there and show it enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"YGlQgh\">\u201cBut these are just conversations anyway,&#8221; he added. &#8220;It comes to down to popular opinion. You\u2019ve got to be able to out-argue the guy across from you. That\u2019s how these pound-for-pound greats last. But I do think Cain shortened himself. He was the most intimidating heavyweight when he was in there. I\u2019d put him right up there with George Foreman as far as the scariest guys to get into the ring with. But I kind of have him as a fourth or a fifth and out of the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Do you agree with Chael Sonnen on this one?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 10\/21\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last weekend, in the main event of Bellator 208, former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen was stopped in the first round by heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. Post-fight Sonnen was quick to offer praise to Emelianenko. In fact, Sonnen says he considers Fedor Emelianenko the best heavyweight in MMA history, while he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":287896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,10104,10121],"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>Chael Sonnen lists the fighters he considers the best heavyweights in MMA history | BJPenn.com<\/title>\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\/chael-sonnen-lists-the-fighters-he-considers-the-best-heavyweights-in-mma-history\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chael Sonnen lists the fighters he considers the best heavyweights in MMA history | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last weekend, in the main event of Bellator 208, former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger Chael Sonnen was stopped in the first round by heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko. 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