The end of both Chael Sonnen's fight and broadcast careers came suddenly and with sadness. It was only weeks ago that the fighter was set to fight in a featured bout on one of the UFC's biggest cards of the year, UFC 175, and UFC president Dana White openly suggested that one day Sonnen could replace him as promoter of the MMA powerhouse.

Real fight fans always root for fighters to make enough money to save during their relatively short careers and also to come up with alternate sources of income in order to provide for themselves. After all, there are no pensions or company retirement plans for former fighters.

We’ve had enough brain damaged fighters compete too for long, become broken down casino greeters or knuckle-breakers in order to pay bills. So, it’s always nice to see some of these warriors “make it.”

Sonnen appeared on his way to becoming one such fighter. Sonnen was an independently wealthy realtor before ever cashing his first big MMA check.

And, in recent years, he became one of the UFC’s highest-paid athletes, all while balancing that work with television broadcast jobs that suited him and which he could have likely continued to hold well after his retirement from fighting.

However, after a 2011 felony money laundering conviction, the once successful realtor Sonnen essentially lost one main source of income. The second failed drug test of his career prompted him to drop out of a big-paying fight and to retire from fighting altogether, last month.

Now, Sonnen’s third failed drug test moved the UFC and FOX Sports to drop him as a broadcast host and analyst. Sonnen recently defended some of his banned treatment and drug use by saying he needed the drugs to have children with his new wife.

It is that same drug use, however, that has contributed to Sonnen losing his last remaining major sources of income just as he is starting a family. Sonnen, still a young man in his thirties, has to find new ways to support himself and his family now.

Even though FOX and the UFC were justified in firing Sonnen, if only because he embarrassed them both by using their broadcasts to spread misinformation and outright lies about banned performance-enhancing drugs at a time when MMA is coming under increased regulatory scrutiny, no one can take satisfaction in him and his family’s misfortune at this time.

Walking the line

Sonnen walked a thin-line these past four years, since he either created or revealed his over-the-top and incendiary personality to the world. He finally leaned too far over to one side, we guess.

FOX Sports and the UFC didn’t seem to care that Sonnen had already failed a drug test, been convicted of a felony and spent years spewing bigoted speech to promote fights when they hired him as a broadcaster and made him a public face for their companies. If anything, Sonnen’s increased notoriety from those failures, crimes and offensive speech appeared to make the well-spoken fighter more appealing to FOX Sports and the UFC as a front-man for their broadcasts.

Until, it didn’t.

It is easy to criticize Sonnen, and this writer has done it plenty, but it’s also important to recognize the way the entire MMA world, all of us, tacitly encouraged Sonnen to continue to be Sonnen – use drugs, lie about it, commit crimes, say crazy and offensive things on television, over and again – right up until we excoriated him for being Sonnen.

Two Sonnens

There’s at least a duality to all human beings and Chael Sonnen’s public persona and displayed character has always appeared to be filled with paradoxes. There was the Chael Sonnen who improved greatly as a fighter over the course of his career, and then there was the Chael Sonnen who overshadowed those athletic accomplishments with a self-made circus act.

Sonnen provided great perspective and analysis as a television host and commentator but also used those same air waves to make light of domestic abuse, insult entire nations and ethnicities and defensively obscure the truth when he was backed against a wall. Sonnen routinely insulted prospective opponents in the most personal ways but also had a great deal of respect among many of his fellow fighters.

Chael Sonnen failed two random drug tests this spring. More

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