Sonnen believes he will soon be considered the best fighter in UFC history.
Published date April 19, 2024, 11:33:40 GMT+1 Last updated April 19, 2024, 11:33:39 GMT+1
Chel Sonnen believes there could be a new contender for the UFC GOAT title soon.
Several fighters can lay claim to being MMA’s true GOAT, including Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, and Anderson Silva.
Conor McGregor often comes up in these discussions given his huge influence on mixed martial arts, but Ronda Rousey recently claimed that she is the “greatest fighter of all time.”
UFC legend Sonnen believes another fighter, light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, could soon join the discussion.
Pereira, a former UFC middleweight champion, defended his light heavyweight title with a first-round knockout of Jamahal Hill at UFC 300 last weekend.
A potential future fight for ‘Poitin’ has been touted as a step up to heavyweight to face interim champion Tom Aspinall.
Sonnen believes that if the Brazilian can win his previously elusive third belt in the UFC, he will be considered the greatest of all time.
“I’m looking at Alex Pereira. That’s an amateur. He has an amateur record,” Sonnen said on the podcast “The Fighter & The Kid.”
“He’s done it 12 times. He’s only done it eight times in the Octagon, but in those eight times he’s won two world titles and defeated five world champions.
“And if you told me that Alex Pereira, who has never had a wrestling match or a grappling match and is not a black belt, is the greatest to ever compete, you would roll your eyes.
“But if he becomes Champ Champ Champ and actually becomes the first person in history to be able to do that, we would step back and think, ‘He might actually be able to do it.’ If he did that, we wouldn’t be able to have a conversation about who is the GOAT.
“We just call him the GOAT. Think about how great Georges St-Pierre is. But I know he won at 70, 185, but none of us ever said he was the GOAT. I didn’t expect it to go up to 205.
“Or when Daniel Cormier won the heavyweight, light heavyweight division, we knew he couldn’t get to the 185 weight class. It’s one of those things where a guy can only go so far.”
Featured image credit: Getty & UFC
Topics: UFC, MMA, Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva
