It would seem that the effects of UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes pulling out of UFC 213 have reached beyond the UFC.
That’s because Bellator MMA fighter and former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen would like to have a special clause put in fighters contracts going forward.
“I realize my idea would not work, however, I still share the ideology that we should have a forfeit clause,” Chael Sonnen said on The MMA Hour. “There’s got to be some time clause, particularly from the weigh-in to the ring. In any other sport you lose and you lose by forfeit. This would never happen in Super Bowl or the NBA. It does happen in boxing meets and in wrestling meets. If anything happens to the athlete where they don’t step on the mat after the weigh in, they lose by forfeit. There should be some kind of a clause in there. I’m not thrilled about it to tell you the truth.”
Nunes claimed a short time after pulling out of UFC 213 that the reason she couldn’t fight was due to her battle with chronic sinusitis.
Sonnen would also like to see fighters who pull out of fights drop in the rankings as well.
“I see people pull out all the time and they should lose their rankings. I think the world of Cain Velasquez but he has pulled out of so many fights, if I’m a media member who gets to poll rankings, I pull his ass out. If Cain comes forward and says, ‘I’m not even tough enough to leave the locker room’, how can (media members) say, ‘this guy is No. 3 in the world.’ He just told you he’s not tough enough to leave the locker room and the whole sport is about who is tougher at a specific time and place. We should have a new champion,” says Sonnen.
Chael Sonnen last competed in the main event of Bellator 180, where he defeated Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision.
