Chael Sonnen lauds Leon Edwards and Alex Pereira for their title-winning finishes, but they’re not his 2022 Comeback of the Year.
Edwards (20-3 MMA, 12-2 UFC) came from behind to land a stunning head kick knockout of Kamaru Usman at UFC 278 to capture the welterweight title. Edwards was down 3-1 heading into Round 5 before he blasted Usman with a perfect head shot. The finish came with 56 seconds remaining in the fight.
Pereira (7-1 MMA, 4-0 UFC) also was down 3-1 before he rallied to finish and dethrone middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in Round 5 at UFC 281.
But for Sonnen, it’s Jiri Prochazka’s submission of Glover Teixeira at UFC 275 that gets his pick. After a back-and-forth fight, Prochazka submitted Teixeira with 28 seconds left in the fight. He was down 3-1 on two of the three judges’ scorecards.
“It was Prochazka over Glover,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “I just thought for how great that fight was, for how many times it looked like that fight was going to be stopped, and then the fact that we get the mathematical equation at the end of the night, which is that Glover was 30 seconds away from remaining world champion.
“He did not have to beat Prochazka. He didn’t have to win the round. He didn’t have to win another sequence. He didn’t have to land another punch. He just had to run out the clock. I thought that Prochazka should have got more credit.”
Prochazka (29-3-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) and Teixeira’s fight had various momentum swings in which each fighter looked like he was about to get finished. But ultimately, Prochazka was able to outlast the Brazilian.
The pair was booked for a title-fight rematch at UFC 282, but Prochazka vacated his belt after a severe shoulder injury that required surgery put him on the sidelines indefinitely.
Chael Sonnen’s 2022 Comeback of the Year is not Leon Edwards or Alex Pereira