Chael Sonnen Announces He's Putting Together a Cabinet to Run for President in 2028

Chael Sonnen wants to be the President of the United States. The former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger dropped the announcement on X Tuesday night and said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"I am at the beginning phases of putting my cabinet together to run for the presidency in 2028," Sonnen wrote.

Of all the things a retired MMA fighter could announce on a random Tuesday evening, it was a Presidential bid.

Chael Sonnen: From the Octagon to The Oval Office

This isn't Chael Sonnen's first time trying politics. Back in 2010, he made an attempt for the Oregon House of Representatives, and having no one else run against him as the Republican primary candidate, he secured it. He had to give up his position due to a legal problem concerning his 2006 money laundering conviction, which he had been found guilty of in a federal court.

After that he stayed out of politics for over a decade, then last year he told Ariel Helwani he was planning to run for Governor of Oregon, went on Fox News with Greg Gutfeld and said "I'm going to be governor of Oregon a lot sooner than a lot of people in Oregon think."

Running for governor isn't big enough for Chael Sonnen. He skipped right past the state level and is going straight for the White House, the same White House he was criticizing Jon Jones for trying to fight at just a few months ago.

One of The Greatest Trash Talker in MMA History Wants to Run the Country

Chael Sonnen is a master talker. Regardless of what you think of his political inclinations or his actual performances in the cage, there’s no denying that he is one of the best trash talkers in the history of MMA.

His rivalries with Anderson Silva and Jon Jones weren’t just big sellers on PPV, but they were crucial in helping to elevate the entire sport. Chael Sonnen had people watching pre fight press conferences with the kind of intensity that wouldn’t be replicated until a few years later when Conor McGregor hit the scene.

He's 49 now, having had title fights in the UFC, as well as wins over Rampage Jackson, Wanderlei Silva, Shogun Rua, and Michael Bisping. A former Division I All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon, Chael Sonnen has over 1 million YouTube subscribers, and works as an ESPN analyst. Now, he's a potential presidential candidate.

Is He Serious Though?

Whether Chael Sonnen actually follows through with his candidacy is the question nobody can answer yet. Chael Sonnen has always walked the line between genuine ambition and elite level trolling. He's the same man who once said he runs "the underworld, the streets" of West Linn, Oregon, which is one of the wealthiest suburbs in the state.

He also actually filed paperwork in 2010, won a primary, and he's been consistently talking about political ambitions for the last two years. At some point, the pattern stops looking like a bit and starts looking like an actual plan.

Whether America is ready for a president who once questioned the UFC's handling of illegal strikes on his YouTube channel is a different conversation entirely. Knowing Chael Sonnen, he'll make that conversation entertaining no matter what.

"I am at the beginning phases of putting my cabinet together," Sonnen said. Most people announce they're running for president. He announced he's already building the team. The campaign hasn't started and he's already ahead of schedule.