Chael Sonnen is and probably always will be one of the most outspoken members of the MMA community and it seems like he has a few things to say about the recent news that Andre Galvao promoted Israel Adesanya to the rank of purple belt in BJJ. Sonnen made his opinions known on one of the most recent episodes of his podcast, Beyond The Fight, where he regularly takes aim at a number of high-profile figures in both the MMA and BJJ community thanks to his affiliation with Submission Underground.
“How a guy has a 12 pound gold belt but has a purple belt is bizarre and whatever coach gave this to him was more trying to speak to his own high standard of learning. To promote an athlete, that’s the message here, whatever coach gave Adesanya his purple belt is not trying to serve and praise Adesanya, they’re trying to self-serve themselves to go “look out how high my standard is.” Meanwhile, said coach doesn’t have any Abu Dhabi champions, doesn’t have anybody signed to submission underground right…”
It seems like Chael Sonnen might want to do just a little bit of research on Andre Galvao before he speaks his mind on his coaching practices. To claim that Galvao “doesn’t have any Abu Dhabi champions” is so inaccurate that it could easily be described as flat-out lying. Of course, BJJ fans will know that Galvao himself is the longest reigning superfight champion in ADCC history with four straight victories after the year he became one of very few men to win both his weight and absolute division at the same time.
Not just that, but one of Galvao’s top students, Kaynan Duarte, became an ADCC champion at the very last edition of the event a little over a year ago. Combine that with his other comment of Galvao not having anybody signed to Submission Underground, which is a solid grappling promotion but is hardly the benchmark for elite Jiu-Jitsu, and you get a clear-cut picture that Sonnen’s criticism really doesn’t mean anything at all in the grand scheme of things.
Sonnen’s a great MMA personality but this is an off base stupid comment. First, there are schools that do this (say we have the highest standard) by holding back belts to have students win tournaments at their lower belt. However, being a UFC champ doesn’t automatically say you should be a black belt in every martial art. For example, Conor M is an all time UFC great but probably a purple / brown belt no gi level. What about Gaethje? Great UFC guy but purple level probably in just no gi.
Penn has a lot going on in his head. I think he should just be left alone.
Sonnen is completely right. Let this guy win with some real grappling and real submissions…then maybe.