Chael Sonnen has decided to hang up his gloves.
After his Bellator 222 TKO loss to Lyoto Machida, the multi-time UFC title challenger in Sonnen announced that he was walking away from MMA, and left his gloves in the cage.
The ride is over. @ChaelSonnen announces that he is retiring. pic.twitter.com/kNMQEIdIKq
— DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) June 15, 2019
Sonnen retires at age 42 after a Bellator MMA run that saw him go 2-3. Prior to that, Sonnen had an extremely successful run in the UFC and WEC that saw multiple titles within his grasp. This included a scheduled title bout in WEC in which Sonnen faced champion Paulo Filho and defeated him, but the title wasn't on the line as a result of Filho missing wieght.
"The American Gangster" was embroiled in one of MMA's top all-time feuds with Anderson Silva. Sonnen was within two minutes of becoming UFC Middleweight Champion at UFC 117, when Silva locked him in a triangle choke. The two would do battle two years later, with the fight going to Silva in a much more decisive battle that drew over 900,000 pay-per-view buys.
Sonnen also had noted struggles with performance enhancing drugs throughout his career, failing multiple drug tests that led to extended absences and gaps.
After the fight, he clarified to Ariel Helwani of ESPN that he'll continue to compete in submission grappling.
Chael retires with a 31-17-1 MMA record.
