Chael Sonnen doesn’t understand why Khamzat Chimaev vs. Dricus Du Plessis hasn’t been booked yet.
Chimaev (14-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) was touted as the No. 1 middleweight contender after running through former champion Robert Whittaker for a first-round submission at UFC 308 this past October.
Middleweight champion Du Plessis’ most recent title defense came in a rematch win over Sean Strickland at UFC 312. However, prior to the fight, Du Plessis (23-2 MMA, 9-0 UFC) admitted that he would have rather fought Chimaev instead.
So Sonnen wants to know why hasn’t that fight been booked yet?
“He was a media darling like only two others had ever done: Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey,” Sonnen told Submission Radio of Chimaev. “The third media darling of our industry: He was shopping, he was buying groceries with a cart, and this did hundreds and thousands of views on YouTube. He was driving through traffic with Darren Till – it did over a million views on YouTube. This guy could not go wrong. The world loved him, and the one accidental piece of marketing that they happened to be given is that he was fighting every other week, at a different weight class, against anybody he wanted with no complaint.
“Now it’s the exact opposite. You can’t get an interview with him. We don’t even know for sure what country he’s living in. It really is a peculiar thing. He’s very clearly the No.1 contender and there’s somebody in that region of the world with some influence that very much wants to make sure that that happens, but why isn’t it happening? DDP would like to know when this is happening. The whole rest of the division have acknowledged that Chimaev has earned the right, but when?”
Sonnen thinks Chimaev’s title-fight should be announced as soon as possible to give clarity for the rest of the division.
“It’s getting to a point that it’s annoying,” Sonnen said. “Any time a guy, particularly a non-champion, holds up an entire division, we have a problem. … You’re going to crush the drive of the entire room.”
