Right about now, Chael Sonnen is kicking back on his couch with a couple of movies ("Road to Perdition" and "The Bounty Hunter") and a couple of magazines ("Soldier of Fortune," probably).
Usually, you hear that the week prior to fight week is the final push before tapering down for the rush of pre-event activities.
For Sonnen, that isn't the case, at least not this time around.
He's sick, and he'll be taking the weekend off prior to his fight with Brian Stann in the co-main event of UFC 136, which takes place Oct. 8 at Houston's Toyota Center. Sonnen (25-11-1 MMA, 4-4 UFC) and Stann (11-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC) are part of the pay-per-view main card.
"I think it's just a common thing when you start to wear down," he said.
There's a host of reasons for his current malaise, as he told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). For one, it's been more than 13 months since he's had a fight. His body isn't used to the strain of a fight camp.
"You can't manufacture it mentally," Sonnen said. "Physically, you go in (and) you try to duplicate it, but it just doesn't happen. And I've felt that. I've felt that in the last 10 weeks. I'm showing up to practice for the same length of time and the same people and coaches. It's different."
Sonnen also helped Yushin Okami prepare for his fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 134, and while that helped kickstart the motor, it may also have helped it to overheat.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/25494/ufc...nnen-willing-to-tip-hat-to-anderson-silva.mma