{"id":316795,"date":"2019-06-20T07:09:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T14:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=316795"},"modified":"2019-06-20T07:09:00","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T14:09:00","slug":"chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/","title":{"rendered":"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last weekend, in the co-main event of Bellator 222, Chael Sonnen was stopped by former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. Shortly thereafter, the fan favorite announced his retirement from MMA.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on his official YouTube channel days later, Sonnen shared his take on this final loss of his impressive career.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Yours Truly vs Lyoto Machida: Here&#039;s what happened...\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JgA31XoLJhU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Chael Sonnen actually had some very high praise for his foil \u2014 particularly with respect to the way the Brazilian uses distance to set up attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really respect the way that he can control distance with any opponent,&#8221; he said (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmanews.com\/chael-sonnen-breaks-down-his-last-fight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MMA News<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Sonnen continued, discussing the way Machida&#8217;s style shook up the game when he first arrived on the scene.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We had never seen Machida,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We\u2019ve never seen this skill set we\u2019ve never seen a guy doing these kinds of kicks doing these kinds of straight-on attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even with the benefit of plenty of tape to study \u2014 something Machida&#8217;s earlier opponents didn&#8217;t have \u2014 Sonnen admitted he had a difficult time coping with the Brazilian legend&#8217;s skillset.<\/p>\n<p>While Chael Sonnen never captured a title during his time in Bellator, WEC, or the UFC, he did accomplish some pretty remarkable things in his MMA career, defeating top-flight foes like Quinton \u201cRampage\u201d Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio \u201cShogun\u201d Rua, Michael Bisping, Nate Marquardt, Brian Stann, Yushin Okami, Renato \u201cBabalu\u201d Sobral, and Jason \u201cMayhem\u201d Miller. He also holds the distinction of being the only man to battle MMA legends Anderson Silva, Jon Jones and Fedor Emelianenko.<\/p>\n<p>Although he retired after his loss to Lyoto Machida, he&#8217;s likely to stay firmly embedded in the MMA community as a podcaster and as an analyst for ESPN and Bellator.<\/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 6\/20\/2019. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last weekend, in the co-main event of Bellator 222, Chael Sonnen was stopped by former UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida. Shortly thereafter, the fan favorite announced his retirement from MMA. Speaking on his official YouTube channel days later, Sonnen shared his take on this final loss of his impressive career. Chael Sonnen actually had [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":316797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","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>Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chael Sonnen praises the skill of his final opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he lost to in the co-main event of Bellator 222.\" \/>\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-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chael Sonnen praises the skill of his final opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he lost to in the co-main event of Bellator 222.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\" \/>\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=\"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chael-Sonnen-8.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=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\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\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\"},\"wordCount\":296,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Bellator\",\"Chael Sonnen\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\",\"name\":\"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Chael Sonnen praises the skill of his final opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he lost to in the co-main event of Bellator 222.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#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\":\"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\",\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"description\":\"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida | BJPenn.com","description":"Chael Sonnen praises the skill of his final opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he lost to in the co-main event of Bellator 222.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida | BJPenn.com","og_description":"Chael Sonnen praises the skill of his final opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he lost to in the co-main event of Bellator 222.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chael-Sonnen-8.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tom Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Taylor","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87"},"headline":"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida","datePublished":"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/"},"wordCount":296,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Bellator","Chael Sonnen"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2019","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/","name":"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-20T14:09:00+00:00","description":"Chael Sonnen praises the skill of his final opponent, Lyoto Machida, who he lost to in the co-main event of Bellator 222.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/bellator\/chael-sonnen-praises-skills-of-lyoto-machida\/#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":"Chael Sonnen praises skills of Lyoto Machida"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87","name":"Tom Taylor","description":"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316795"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}