Video: Chael Sonnen Talks About His Suspension Appeal, His Beef With Wand and Gives His Thoughts On Overeem and Lesnar

(Video courtesy YouTube/UFCGaming)

Besides his  impromptu interview with HDNet's Mike Straka hours after his suspension appeal with the California State Athletic Commission, Chael Sonnen has been uncharacteristically quiet about the ordeal.
During Thursday's episode of MMA Live, Chael was asked for a synopsis of his thoughts on the hearing and his reduced suspension and in true Sonnen form, his answers didn't disappoint.
"Rules are rules and they have to be followed. A government agency, which is the commission, has to be transparent, clear and decisive. They said that I didn't disclose. I proved three different ways that I did. I had an email command, I disclosed it directly to the executive director [of CSAC] and we wrote it down on a form that was signed and dated with the head of the testing agency," Sonnen explained. "We proved all of these things, but we were still told that we didn't disclose. I don't know what dictionary they consult to get a definition of the word, 'disclosure,' but according to the ones that I read at the University of Oregon, that's disclosure."
As far as who was to blame in the situation, sonnen said that CSAC's actions spoke volumes in that regard.
"There's no such thing as a six-month fine. If somebody broke the rules, they serve 12 months. This isn't like traffic court where you drop the suspension because the guy showed up in a suit and looked nice. I came in and I put my case forward. They dropped it to six months. That's the same thing as saying, 'We were wrong.'"
Host Jon Anik put the UFC middleweight on this spot by asking Sonnen about Nevada State Athletic Commission head Keith Kizer's recent response to statements made by Chael during his hearing that the bureaucrat he had told him that he was approved for testosterone replacement therapy and that he should not bring up his condition to commissions in the future.
Here's what Kizer told ESPN's Josh Gross:
"I know he didn't say anything to me, and if he would have said something to my doctors they would have told me," Kizer said. "Maybe there's some legitimate answers here. I don't want to pre-judge anything on this, but I've never talked to the guy in my life and I've never cleared him for TRT in my life. I'm as confused as anyone."
Not surprisingly, Sonnen spun the question before closing with an ambiguous, yet politically correct answer.
"A federal law known as HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) would prohibit a government official from speaking about my private medical records," Chael explained, intimating that Kizer was simply protecting his rights and not denying knowledge of Sonnen's condition. "Keith Kizer does a great job. He's a very good guy and I have no problems in Nevada."
Knowing that he is prohibited from training (or at least admitting that he is doing so) until March 1, the staunch Republican said that he would be willing to take a fight later that month or possibly in April if the opponent was right.
"We'll get through all the red tape in just a matter of months. The very first of March we'll begin training and I'm looking at having a fight immediately following," he said. "There's three shows going on in that month and I'm gonna get tabbed on one of them."
When asked if a potential showdown with Wanderlei Silva is a possibility for his return to the Octagon, Sonnen said the reason why he set his sights on "The Axe Murderer" was purely a selfish one.
"I'm not feeling quite up to myself. I'm suspended and can't resume training until early March, so I'm looking for an easy fight," he explained. "I took an easy target and I called out the guy with the worst record in the history of the UFC."
Later on in the show when the panel was discussing the upcoming heavyweight K-1 Dynamite!! bout between Alistair Overeem and UFC cast-off Todd Duffee, Sonnen pulled no punches in sharing his views on the match-up.
"It's really hard to care about this fight. Any time Overeem goes out there, it really is perplexing. He doesn't have a whole lot of meaningful fights. My advice is bet your neighbor a bag of potato chips so that you could even care. Don't bother wasting your time clicking the refresh button to see who won this fight. Go out. It's New Year's. Watch the ball drop. Tune in next week and we'll tell you who won."
When Anik pointed out that a majority of fans and the media consider Overeem to be the best heavyweight striker in MMA, Sonnen cut off Kenny Florian's response to weigh in on the perceived fallacy.
"Well a lot of people think that Elvis Presley's still alive as well. I don't know that Overeem is an MMA fighter at all. Duffee got released from the UFC. Overeem got stomped in the first round by the UFC light heavyweight champion," he pointed out, referring to The Demolition Man's 2003 loss to Chuck Liddell.  "I'm really not seeing it... From 'The department of who cares?' I'm gonna predict that Overeem cheats his way to another meaningless victory."
Lastly, the outspoken Oregonian added his two cents on the possiblilty that former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar may walk away from MMA to return to the WWE.
"Brock's got an obligation to the UFC. What somebody needs to explain to Brock is that deals go both ways. You can't just take and not give [something] back. Brock needs to honor his deal. Vince McMahon may have been willing to forgive you; Dana White will not. On the other hand, if I got stomped out in under three minutes by a guy I outweighed by 50 pounds, I'd think about quitting, too," Sonnen said. "I don't know if [his heart is still in MMA] or not. There's not a whole lot of guys who can beat Brock Lesnar. At the same time, there's never going to be a scenario where Brock Lesnar closes the gap, which is insurmountable, against Cain Velasquez. I think he could be number two and he could be number two for a while. I don't think he wants to do it. I think that's okay too, but if you have an obligation and you made a deal with Zuffa, honor your obligation."
Chael better hope that he doesn't get stuck sharing a car back to the hotel from an event with Brock any time soon.