Sonnen stays classy, claims Armstrong gave himself cancer

Yahoo! Sports

Wed Aug 04 01:28pm EDT

Sonnen stays classy, claims Armstrong gave himself cancer

In promoting his UFC 117 title bout with Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen has been the picture of class. He's gone on and on about how Silva has been ducking him, how Silva may be the champion but he's the best — it goes on and on.

Until now, his targets have been mostly confined to the world of MMA. That has changed. In an interview with Pro MMA Radio, he found a new target: Tour de France legend and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong. Sonnen said:

Take Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong did a number of things and he gave himself cancer. He cheated, he did drugs, and he gave himself cancer. Well, instead of saying ‘Hey listen, I cheated and gave myself cancer, don't be like me.' He actually made himself the victim and then went out and profited something like $15 million dollars from this ‘Hey, poor me, let's find a cure for cancer' campaign instead of just coming clean and saying, ‘Look, here's what I did, I screwed myself up, and I hope people learn from my mistakes.' You just watch these guys and can't help but think, God, what a fraud.

It's interesting that in addition to being a wannabe politician, a realtor, a cagefighter, a trash talker and a wrestler, Sonnen has somehow found the time to become an oncologist. Clearly, he's taken the time to learn the intricacies of cancer, tumors and their causes. Sonnen must have taken the time to learn these things before stating something so reckless.

Wait, he's not a doctor? And he has no business speaking about such things? So this ridiculous statement, like many of the other things Sonnen says, should be treated with a shrug. Until he lets his fists talk on Saturday night, all of the trash talk is just background noise.