SANTA MONICA, 加利福尼亚州. (九月 15, 2016) – Bellator MMA is elated to announce the signing of Chael Sonnen的 (28-14-1), 以独家多年, 多打合同.

By signing with the Scott Coker-led promotion, Sonnen effectively ends his retirement from professional mixed martial arts and he will now enter the 205-pound division championed by 利亚姆McGeary, 除其他.

“I’m consistently blown away by the product and presentation that Bellator is bringing to the fans,” said Sonnen. “I’m not nearly done competing and I’m coming after everyone, everywhere. I’m not sticking to one weight class either, I fight at ‘Gangster Weight’ and nobody is safe.”

Sonnen has spent a vast majority of his 43-fight career with the UFC, a run where he competed against names the likes of Jon Jones, 安德森·席尔瓦 (2X), 拉沙德·埃文斯（Rashad Evans）, “ Shogun” Rua, 德米安·马亚, 布赖恩·斯坦恩, and current middleweight champion Michael Bisping. In addition to his exploits inside the cage, 西林, 小时。, 本地人已经掌握了在镜头前的艺术, doing major broadcasting work for both ESPN and Fox Sports.

“Chael is an incredible athlete that has competed at the very highest levels of the sport,“Bellator MMA总裁斯科特·科克说：, “I know that he is going to continue to do just that here at Bellator. When we were in the process of signing him, Chael was adamant that he wants to compete in three divisions here. He already has unfinished business with Wanderlei Silva, but he also wants to fight guys like Tito Ortiz, Fedor Emelianenko and even Rory MacDonald at middleweight. These are all fights that I’d be very inclined to watch, so hopefully we can put some, if not all of these matchups together starting before the end of the year.”