So, you wanna be a submission fighter?
Chael Sonnen hung up his MMA gloves earlier this year, but his days of issuing challenges are far from over.
Sonnen’s submission grappling promotion, Submission Underground, continues to go from strength to strength, with events streamed live on UFC Fight Pass and attracting big names from the worlds of both MMA and grappling.
This past weekend at Submission Underground 10, Sonnen engineered a callout of a different kind as he threw down the gauntlet for anyone to step up and challenge two of the planet’s very best submission specialists.
His promotion’s next event, Submission Underground 11, will feature a special tag-team matchup, with Australian ace Craig Jones telling Sonnen he hoped to convince his teammate – and arguably the best grappler in the world – Gordon Ryan to team up with him for the event.
“What’s next for me? Those tag-team matches look pretty fun,” Jones told Sonnen in the cage after submitting UFC welterweight contender Gilbert Burns.
“I’m going to try to twist Gordon’s arm, but that’s a hard thing to do!”
The prospect of facing a team of Jones and Ryan in submission-based competition is just about as daunting as it gets, so Sonnen offered up a sweetener.
“Should that happen I will personally give $25,000 to any tag team alive that can come in and beat these guys,” he announced.
And, after submitting former UFC heavyweight title challenger Gabriel Gonzaga later in the night, Ryan said he was happy to team up with Jones for action next year.
“Yeah, for sure. Tag-team matches have been picking up some steam, and there’s nobody better to do it with than Craig,” said “The Winner of Everything.” “So if everything works out properly then, yeah, I’m in for sure.”
Who’s up for the challenge? Whoever it is, they’d better start drilling their leg-lock defense now.
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