Neil Melanson, who coached Chael Sonnen during his training camp for Anderson Silva, was a guest at Verbal Submission, a show hosted by MMAMania's Brian Hemminger, and BloodyElbow's Ben Thapa.

He talked about the aftermath of the UFC 148 main event, where he said he "has a feeling" that there's a very real possibility that Sonnen really calls it quits following his failure to claim the UFC Middleweight title after two tries:

"Any time you're a part of training camp or you're friends with somebody and they lose, you just worry about them like, how are they gonna handle it mentally? Are they gonna come back from this? You know, I don't know what Chael's plans are, but I got a feeling he's done fighting. I don't know. I've just got a feeling he's done. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think he was serious when he said, 'If you beat me, I will leave forever,' and there's a very good chance of that."

Related: UFC 148 Results: What's Next For The Main Card Fighters | Rashad Evans Calls Out Anderson Silva

More from Melanson after the jump.

"I never met anyone that had a scenario where it's like, 'If I don't win this then I'm done,' it never worked out positive for them because, just in my experience, you have to love the grind and if you love the grind, eventually you'll get what you want because you give up what you need to give up." "Apparently Chael had his limit like, 'This is it, I've had enough. If I don't win this then it's all not worth it.' Having lost that, yeah, there's a very good chance he could pursue other things. He's a very smart guy, very well spoken. I know, whether he'll admit to it or not, he has a lot of passion to be a broadcaster of sorts. He seems to excel in any type of speaking arrangement. He loves doing interviews. He loves hyping fights and I'm sure he loves training. He's a good fighter. He's a great fighter and he's an awesome athlete but he can't fight forever and maybe he's at a point he'd like to do something else. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong."

Sonnen has done very well on the times he has been behind the desk, hosting or giving post-fight analysis, so regardless if he really hangs it up as his coach speculates, I do agree that he should have a broadcasting job in the future.

If he doesn't call it quits though, people have already been saying that he may be in that 'Jon Fitch territory', which would be a tough proposition on itself. He may be the clear number 2 guy, but he could be stuck in limbo, needing multiple impressive showings before he can even convince people to grant him another title shot after losing twice.

Either way, there are still several intriguing match ups to be made in the division with Hector Lombard, Rich Franklin, Vitor Belfort, Michael Bisping, and now apparently even Rashad Evans, all looking to get in the mix of things.