(Courtesy of Bellator MMA)

Lyoto Machida picked up his second win in Bellator MMA on Friday night while simultaneously retiring former title contender Chael Sonnen with a pair of vicious flying knees that ended the fight in the second round.

Machida nearly got the job done with the same flying knee in the first round but Sonnen found a way to survive. Unfortunately for him, he could not withstand the pressure from a second attack courtesy of Machida, who wrapped up the TKO victory at Bellator 222 on Friday night.

TRENDING Chael Sonnen: Career Trash Talking Highlights

Check out the full fight video courtesy of Bellator MMA as Machida lowers the boom on Sonnen before he announces that he’s calling it a career following the fight. 

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/watch-lyoto-machida-retires-chael-sonnen-with-flying-knee-ko-full-fight-video

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Before Conor McGregor was must see television every time he stepped onto a stage for a press conference, Chael Sonnen was the fighter you just couldn’t miss whenever he had a microphone in front of his face.

From his epic rants against fighters such as Anderson Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira to his long simmering feud with Wanderlei Silva, Sonnen didn’t invent trash talk but he may have perfected the art.

This past Friday night at Bellator 222, Sonnen announced his retirement from active competition following a loss to Lyoto Machida but now we take a look back at some of the funniest moments from his trash talking career.  

TRENDING  Watch: Lyoto Machida Retires Chael Sonnen w/ Flying Knee KO (FULL FIGHT VIDEO)

Enjoy a look at “The American Gangster” at his very best outside the cage. 

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/chael-sonnen-the-american-gangsters-best-trash-talking-highlights-video

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Bellator 222 featured welterweight champion Rory MacDonald putting the first loss on Neiman Gracie’s previously spotless record, as he defended his belt and moved on to the final of the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix.

The Bellator 222 co-main event saw former UFC champion Lyoto Machida take out Chael Sonnen, sending him into retirement.

TRENDING  Bellator re-signs Fedor Emelianenko for his ‘retirement tour’

Bellator 222: MacDonald vs. Gracie took place on Friday, June 14, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/bellator-222-fight-highlights-lyoto-machida-ko-sends-chael-sonnen-into-retirement

(Courtesy of UFC)

After their star-making first meeting in the WEC, Chan Sung Jung (aka the Korean Zombie) and Leonard Garcia faced off again in the Octagon in 2011 in a fight that was just as exciting — and ended in the only ‘Twister’ submission in UFC history.

TRENDING Bellator 222 Fight Highlights: Lyoto Machida KO sends Chael Sonnen into retirement

Tune in to MMAWeekly.com on Saturday, June 22, for full UFC on ESPN+ 12: Moicana vs. Korean Zombie live results, as Jung steps into the main event to face Renato Moicano in Greenville, South Carolina.

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/watch-korean-zombie-finish-leonard-garcia-with-the-ufcs-first-twister-ufc-greenville-fight-video

It has been nearly three months since TJ Dillashaw relinquished the UFC bantamweight championship after having tested positive for a banned substance. He finally broke his silence, admitting to having cheated in preparation for his January 2019 bout with Henry Cejudo.

Dillashaw held the bantamweight title entering the fight with Cejudo, who was the UFC flyweight champion. He wanted nothing more than to become a dual-division champion, proclaiming to the world that he could easily drop to 125 pounds and take the belt from the Olympic Gold Medalist.

The problem for Dillashaw was that his body disagreed. He couldn’t make the drop as easily as he thought and it ravaged his body to the point he didn’t feel like training for the fight. He was tired, lethargic, not at all himself. So he took the only way he could find to try and get himself back on form.

“First and foremost, I cheated,” Dillashaw said while on a recent episode of You’re Welcome with Chael Sonnen. “I don’t want to create any excuses. I wanted to drop the weight class. I wanted to go down one weight class to 125 pounds and I played it off on how easy it was gonna be.

“I pushed my body to the extreme. About six weeks out, my body started to crash, it started to get tired. My hematocrit was crashing. I was on the verge of becoming anemic. I decided to take something I wasn’t allowed to take. It’s called ProCrit. It would help me not only make the weight, but to be myself.”

ProCrit is a medication often used to help people with anemia. The active ingredient is Erythropoietin or EPO, which is a substance that has often been used in the professional cycling world as a performance enhancer. It is one of the main substances that led to former multiple-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong being banned from the sport for life.

Dillashaw relayed that his blood levels bordered on him becoming anemic, which would account for his being so wiped out. He also said that when he used EPO, it basically brought him back in line with his normal levels, not something beyond what is naturally occurring in the human body. 

TRENDING Take a look back at Chuck Liddell’s legendary career: the UFC’s first superstar

The only problem with that is it is still a banned substance. For that, he makes no excuses.

“I cheated. I got caught,” Dillashaw continued. “It is hard not to hate yourself a little bit.”

Dillashaw said that the hardest part of the situation for him has been having the decision he made cast a dark cloud over his family and his team, whom he said had no knowledge of what he was doing.

After he was caught, Dillashaw was issued a two-year suspension by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which administers the UFC Anti-Doping Policy. The suspension is retroactive to the Cejudo fight, which took place on Jan. 19, 2019. He will be eligible to return after Jan. 19, 2021, and fully intends to return.

“I”ll have to come back and prove myself,” said Dillashaw.

“I will come back. I will be champion again.”

Article source: https://www.mmaweekly.com/tj-dillashaw-i-cheated-i-dont-want-to-create-any-excuses