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Chael Sonnen recently shared his thoughts on Ilia Topuria's surprising decision to vacate his UFC featherweight title and move up to lightweight. He noted that it must have been a very difficult decision to make and believes it was honorable on his part.
'El Matador' had a short but memorable featherweight title reign as he knocked Alexander Volkanovski out to win the title last February and then became the first fighter to knock Max Holloway out in his lone title defense.
Last week, UFC CEO Dana White made it official that Topuria would be vacating his title and moving to 155 pounds primarily due to an increasingly difficult weight cut to 145 pounds.
'The American Gangster' uploaded a video to his Instagram account, where he weighed in on the news. Sonnen mentioned that he himself never would have done that and highlighted the dedication it takes to become a UFC champion:
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"I never lost a fight but I also never got the world championship. I worked for it my whole life and I sacrificed everything. I can't even imagine giving it back. I'd have never given it back, they would have had to take that out of my cold dead hands...That is how much he needs to leave 145 pounds...We need to commend him for telling us now and not letting us find out the day before a contest on the scale."
Check out Chael Sonnen's comments regarding Ilia Topuria below:
Chael Sonnen says MMA community should commend Ilia Topuria for agreeing to vacate his title
As per Chael Sonnen, the MMA community should applaud Ilia Topuria for agreeing to make the difficult decision to vacate his featherweight championship.
In a video uploaded to his Instagram account, Sonnen mentioned that Topuria was honorable in vacating his title rather than risking his health and missing weight for his next title defense:
"[Topuria's] a superstar... 'I'll take a risk, I'll give a belt away, I'll lose my participation points. I'll move up into a weight class where you're not even guaranteeing me a championship'...We cannot let some of our greats...go because we don't want to face the reality of how difficult a lifestyle is to beat the scale."
Check out Chael Sonnen's reaction to Ilia Topuria moving up to lightweight below:
