Chael Sonnen claims UFC title shot for Kai Asakura is “right”

Chael Sonnen, a former UFC fighter-turned-analyst, quickly gave his thoughts on the UFC 310 pay-per-view main event between Alexandre Pantoja and Kai Asakura, which headlines this Saturday.

Sonnen never won a UFC world title. Between 2010 and 2013, he came up short on three occasions against former middleweight champion Anderson Silva (twice) and current heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

Although Sonnen never got to hold gold at the highest level, he pulled back the curtain on why the debuting Asakura deserves a championship opportunity after winning 13 fights in RIZIN during a six-year stint in the promotion.

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Sonnen said hardcore MMA fans are more excited about this fight because of the newly minted name-value Asakura brings to the Octagon rather than Pantoja’s dominance at 125 pounds.

“I gotta tell you, if you know Asakura, yeah,” Sonnen said. “It sounds right. One thing about it – you can get the boys together and you can put them in a room. One hour later, they will tell you who the leader is. They’ll also tell you who the co-captain is. They don’t have to touch. They don’t have to fight. They don’t have to wrestle. They don’t even have to come near each other.”

Sonnen used the analogy to emphasize that UFC fighters getting title shots in debuts is more common than realized. Examples include UFC 75’s main event between Quinton Jackson and Dan Henderson, where the pair unified the belts. The same goes for Brock Lesnar and Silva, who got title shots early in their UFC tenures.

“[Alexandre Pantoja] has quite possibly the best pace in the UFC,” Sonnen said. “His secret sauce is not his team. It’s not his training. His secret sauce is his ability to out-scramble everybody he’s ever fought. And he can out-scramble them better than anyone for one reason: he’s in better shape than them.”

What are your thoughts on Chael Sonnen’s comments? Can Kai Asakura upset Alexandre Pantoja to win the flyweight title?