Chael Sonnen Pulls Out of Oregon State Senate Race

  • Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 at 5:55 am by Brad McCray

PORTLAND, Ore. – Top UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen announced his intention to pull out of the Oregon house race Tuesday. The 33-year-old received the Republican nomination for District 37 in May. On Tuesday, he issued the following statement:

“In the best interests of my district, I am resigning from my campaign for the Oregon House of Representatives. A 2006 legal issue has arisen that needs my immediate attention. I am not at liberty to disclose the details, but my name was involved in a real estate case that requires a ruling. If the ruling is adverse, I would be disqualified from running for office until 2011. So, given that possibility, I have chosen to withdraw my name as a candidate in 2010. I will continue to contribute to my community and ensure that we have a capable candidate to run for my district in November.”

The decision will definitely give Sonnen more time to prepare for his August 7 fight against middleweight champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117.

“That is true, but I wanted to be clear about why I was pulling out of the race,” Sonnen said.

Sonnen has been on a tear in the cage recently with consecutive wins over Dan Miller (UFC 98), Yushin Okami (UFC 104) and Nate Marquardt (UFC 109). He followed long-time coach and training partner Matt Lindland into politics. Both train at Team Quest near Gresham, Ore. Lindland ran for the Oregon House of Representatives in 2008, but was defeated in the general election.

Correction: The story originally stated that Sonnen was running for state senate when he was actually running for a seat in the Oregon house of representatives.

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4 Responses to “Chael Sonnen Pulls Out of Oregon State Senate Race”

  1. ty says:
    June 16, 2010 at 12:54 pm

    I still don’t understand why fighters have such strong feelings for politics. They’re so separated from each other its ridiculous.

  2. Nathan Dahlin says:
    June 16, 2010 at 11:59 pm

    Correction: District 37 is a house (not senate) district in Oregon.

  3. CoffeeCures says:
    June 17, 2010 at 6:50 am

    Politics and fighting are very similar: there is a ton of meaningless talk around the people involved, trash talk, feigned respect and in the end it is all about imposing your will on the other person. Doesn’t that sound like American politics to you?

  4. American Pundit Fighting says:
    June 17, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    ‘Ty’ I’m afraid I agree with ‘CoffeeCures’. In fact so much so that in the last 4 years I’ve worked on a blog dedicated to the similarities between Wrestling and American Politics.

    The wrestling comparison I find more apt because it is more theatrical than MMA, though MMA/boxing still has the same elements of theatrical talk.

    The fighting is actually secondary. Fans of the sport actually base their support of fighters on their charisma, the way they can captivate an audience with their backstory and their presentation. They make gestures and statements that appeal to base instincts of the audience, drawing attention by making us cheer or boo for them depending on their orientation as a ‘face’ or ‘heel’.

    I argue that American Politics and Punditry is similar. Politics/Policy is secondary, the psychology and charisma are front and center.

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