Chael Sonnen: 'I'm not sorry for drug use'
Retired UFC fighter Chael Sonnen is finally being honest about intentionally violating drug rules, but he isn't about to apologize for any of it. Speaking on his new podcast, You're Welcome, Sonnen says he'll just have to live with intentionally trying to game the system.
"I'm not going to apologize because I'm not sorry. I'm a consenting adult. I knew exactly what I was doing. This was a premeditated decision," Sonnen said.
Sonnen went on to explain the rationale and criteria he used when deciding what drugs to take. What substances were and were not allowed by governing athletic commissions was not one of the criteria he was concerned with.
"For me, the litmus test was flawed, but here was my litmus test: Can't be a steroid, and it's got to be legal," Sonnen explained.
"I can't take anything, I don't wan't to be in possession of anything that isn't legal. What I'm talking about there, I'm not talking about the commissions and their rules, I'm talking about the law. I'm talking about, am I holding something in my possession and then a police officer sees me, am I allowed to have that. If the answer's yes, then I'm in. That was my test. If I could get this legal, if there's a legal medication, I'm taking it, I'm not cross-referencing it with the commission. I'm not taking the rules or someone else's over that of a doctor. That's what I'd tell myself to sleep well at night."
There is no way of knowing for certain if Sonnen is telling the truth here, or once more lying. As a convicted felon, he has shown to have trouble keeping on the right side of the law, and before he got caught using himself, he criticized other athletes for using drugs he himself used or would go on to use.
All that is to say - we may be finally getting the full truth from Sonnen, or just another partial version of it. In any case, the three-time UFC title challenger isn't shrinking away from his actions or the limelight.
Sonnen will admit to cheating, but he won't say he's sorry for having tried. "If you're going to try to get away with something, if you're beat, you're beat," Sonnen concluded.
"There's nothing more to it, there's nothing more to the story. I took something, I was caught, I got tarnished and that's it."
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