Sonnen puts PED use behind him, claims $500K fine if busted again
Anyone worried about Chael Sonnen going back to his cheating ways can take some comfort from an alleged caveat in his Bellator MMA contract.
According to Sonnen, it's unlikely we'll see a repeat of the 2014 episode that saw him fail multiple drug tests for a litany of banned substances, including estrogen blockers and human growth hormone. He was suspended from MMA competition for two years, and subsequently retired from the sport.
On a conference call Friday to address his comeback with Bellator, Sonnen expressed remorse over his past transgressions while guaranteeing he'll be a clean fighter from now on.
"I should have been suspended, I was, I did my time, but I can tell you I'm not going back," said Sonnen. "(Bellator president) Scott (Coker) had said earlier that he didn't want to talk about the contract, so I'm hesitant to offer this, but allow me to anyway.
"If I was to fail a test under my Bellator contract, it would cost me 100 percent of my purse and $500,000. That is in writing. I understand for you guys that's not as good as a clean test, but boy that's gotta mean something. If you think I didn't read that part of it before I signed it, I did."
It's important to note Coker declined to verify the details of Sonnen's six-fight, three-year deal, including the exact terms. He couldn't say whether such a stiff penalty clause was unique to his contract, or standard for Bellator athletes.
When Sonnen was asked if his decision to sign with Bellator was related to being tested by USADA in recent months in what was expected to be a lead-up to a UFC return, "The American Gangster" said he was tested four times without issue.
"It didn't have anything to do with it. If I would have been flagged by USADA, Coker's not talking to me either," said Sonnen. "And I get it. I would be toxic. I don't like those things I did. They embarrass me. I steer into it sometimes with a laugh basically, but the truth is that it embarrasses me.
"It was a different world with different times, it just was. You've got to change with those times or you're outside of the lines. And I was outside of the lines."