Chael Sonnen says Bellator’s Cris Lencioni has been hospitalized after losing consciousness during training: “He has not regained consciousness”

By Cole Shelton - June 18, 2023

Chael Sonnen has opened up on the current health of his friend and Bellator fighter Cris Lencioni.

Cris Lencioni

Lencioni is 11-3 as a pro and is 6-2 in Bellator and has won four straight fights. He is slated for arguably the biggest fight of his career as he’s supposed to take on James Gallagher at Bellator 298 on August 11. However, in preparation for the fight, Lencioni was training and reportedly lost consciousness, Sonnen revealed.

Immediately, 911 was called and Cris Lencioni was rushed to the hospital. Since then, a week has gone by and the 28-year-old is still unconscious. Yet, Chael Sonnen says the hope is he will regain consciousness very soon, but he wants everyone to pray for Lencioni.

“He was at a new gym, they invited him out there and said hey, we got some good bodies, some good coaching and we would love to have you. Cris took them up on it and went to a new gym,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel about Cris Lencioni. “He was in the process of working out, they were doing MMA sparring, they happened to be in a grappling situation, at the time Cris lost consciousness, he was not in the process of being punched or choked or anything like that. He was just in the process of getting his workout in and lost consciousness. The folks at the gym, and thank heavens for them, they just sprung into action, called 911 and an ambulance comes. Cris had not gained consciousness…

“They get an ambulance and get him to the hospital. This was a week ago, immediately, they believed the following day, Cris would regain consciousness, and he himself could share some insight on how did we got here,” Sonnen continued about Lencioni. “When the next day came and he didn’t regain consciousness, that wasn’t alarming, they just said, hey look it’s going to be the next day. In the process of all this, Cris’ wife is able to get out there and be by his side as this started to unfold…

“Cris is in the hospital, he has not regained consciousness. They have his vitals, they got his signs, they are able to do all sorts of things. Everything does steer to the direction that he will regain consciousness and then we go from there,” Sonnen concluded about Lencioni.

As of right now, there is little detail on what exactly happened to Lencioni, but the hope is he will be able to recover and regain his consciousness very soon.

The team at BJPENN.com sends their prayers to Cris Lencioni for a quick recovery.