The 2024 season is at an end and analysts, nerdy enthusiasts, and journos are info-dumping best UFC/MMA moments. With meteoric rise of fighters and change of guard quite a few times, some coaches would be dipping in the middle of all the glory. Plinio Cruz, Erick Nicksik, or Jorge and Agustin Climent maybe? Henry Cejudo thinks it has to be ‘Uncle’ Chael Sonnen gas-lighting Colby Covington!
‘Bad Guy’ Chael Sonnen cornered ‘Chaos’ very recently. Colby Covington fought until his doctor stoppage TKO loss to Joaquin Buckley in Tampa. He suffered a gruesome cut on his eyelid that made the doctor intervene in the third frame. The stoppage allowed Covington to have an ‘in-built’ excuse. Hence, “Triple C” Henry Cejudo can’t help but laugh at Sonnen’s motivation after the UFC on ESPN 63 headliner.
The Olympian and co-host of Pound 4 Pound with Kamaru Usman & Henry Cejudo Podcast fame, had stuff to air. Cejudo had to remind that Sonnen was actually about to throw the towel in before the R3 doctor’s stoppage came. So, best MMA salesman (yes, considering he made a living out of making a gimmick of hating all Brazilians named Silva), Chael Sonnen’s gaslighting here is something.
Coaches helping Alex Pereira’s utter domination in 2024? Team AKA helping Islam Makhachev reach a historic 14-fight win streak and be the reigning UFC lightweight? No; for Henry Cejudo, selling the game here was the best coaching moment of 2024. He is pumping in the thought: Is Sonnen the ‘Bad Guy’ or “Is he really the good guy?”
When one coach predicted ‘Energy of Hell’ from a Notorious superstar
Leave out the scope of Chael Sonnen and the chaotic 170-pound fighter Colby Covington. What’s one instance from the past few years, not just 2024 that a coach said and it held true this season? Has to be ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor and his ‘Aura Del Infierno’ (hellish spirit) that Ilia Topuria mentioned.
Reigning UFC 145-pound champion Topuria met with McGregor on only a few instances in real life. Subsequently, they have now grown the repertoire of being enemies rather than fighting each other. In a resurfaced clip from The Wild Project podcast, “El Matador” described the bad mojo he got from the star in one of his in-person encounters.
Ilia Topuria says that Conor McGregor has “terrible energy” and “his aura comes straight from HELL”
“I want to be away from this dude, he has a black energy, I never felt that before”pic.twitter.com/DOfoQbXF1d
— ACD MMA (@acdmma_) December 27, 2024
Topuria fought on the same card as UFC 264 in 2021; McGregor’s infamous leg break TKO loss. Topuria won his fight against Ryan Hall via KO and the rest is history. Climent Club MMA coaches Jorge and Agustin Climent have been part of Camp Topuria since then.
The Spaniard mentioned Agustin was very much into occult and voodoo and got bad vibes. McGregor broke his leg that night, soured it up with disses on Dustin Poirier and his wife further, and hasn’t returned ever since. Well into 2024, that’s the best coaching premonition to ever stand out.
A Dublin Jury found McGregor guilty of assault on Nikita Hand in 2018. He is liable to pay upward of €248,000 in damages (£206,000 /$260,000 all-in). All his celebrity brand endorsements have left McGregor high and dry. Too full of riches and on the last leg of his UFC contract, he isn’t getting any new rehashes yet. It’s the devil’s tale wrapped and over.
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