Chael Sonnen References Daniel Cormier's Old Wrestling Foe To Explain Alex Pereira's Rivalry With Israel Adesanya

At UFC 295, Alex Pereira accomplished another incredible feat in his career by becoming a two-time world champion in MMA. 

The former middleweight king defeated Jiri Prochazka in the main event to claim the vacant light heavyweight title in destructive fashion.

Reigning supreme at Madison Square Garden for the second time in back-to-back years, his post-fight speech caught some fans off guard.

In the first time we have heard him speak English on the mic, he called out his former rival Israel Adesanya, beckoning him up to 205 pounds for their trilogy fight.

With Adesanya winning the rematch earlier this year and “Poatan” moving up a weight class as a result, their feud seemed on the back burner for the time being.

Instead, the Brazilian chose to reignite that spark, and one watcher was slightly upset to see the new light heavyweight champion go straight back to “The Last Stylebender”.

Chael Sonnen References Cormier’s Wrestling Feud As What He Wanted To See Take Place Between Pereira And Adesanya 

Appearing on the latest episode of DC & RC, Chael Sonnen said that he was disappointed to see that Pereira couldn’t let the hatchet stay buried.

“The American Gangster” used a significant rivalry in Daniel Cormier’s career to illustrate his point of why he hoped for a ceasefire between two of the best in the world.

Referencing Cormier’s old feud with his wrestling rival, Cael Sanderson, Sonnen explained how their peace treaty was the right decision at the time.

“Before you had Daniel Cormier and Stipe or Daniel and Jon Jones, you had Daniel and a young man named Cael Sanderson. This was in dual meets in front of nobody, this was on ESPN in front of the world. I don’t bring that up to embarrass Daniel, I bring these up to celebrate, there were great memories.” 

These guys went on, they shuffled weight classes, they went on to be Olympic teammates together. I would kind of like that celebration between Pereira and Izzy at some point. I’d kind of like a shaking of the hands and bygones are bygones and go tell the story someday you know at your local bar having some peanuts. It kind of disappointed me to be fair.”      

Sonnen went on to say that following Pereira’s move to light heavyweight, he took that as the rivalry being put aside, hence his disappointment at the call-out.

“I just thought they had moved on, as a matter of fact, I bring up Daniel and Cael Sanderson. One of the ways they smoothed this, they changed weights and found a way to work together. I thought that’s what Pereira was doing when he changed weights.”   

Read also: Demetrious Johnson Assesses How Israel Adesanya Would Fare Against Alex Pereira At LHW

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