MMA veteran Chael Sonnen recently spoke about the rise of UFC stars and one of the battle nerds. He raises his eyebrows with his habit, whether he is an athlete or not. Chael Sonnen will say in his video:
“Carlos Award, smoke 4 cigarettes at a time! – 1 pack per day. Have you ever heard of it when you said ‘4 at a time’?
“I don’t want my kids to see it. I think it’s okay to smoke, and I still believe they can become world class athletes.”
“If Carlos’s Plates turns out to be a truly chronic smoker, I will be the hall monitor I want to reach him and encourage him to get help.
Sonnen has been an athlete for the rest of his life and has trained him to compete in the highest level of track and field since his teenage years, so you can understand why he’s tired of these habits.
Chael Sonnen’s disapproval of Carlos Prates is nothing new in MMA.
Past fans and fighters have been critical of the new generation for some reason. It is a characteristic of the human condition as a whole. However, this may be a cultural division, as Sonnen comes from the classic American culture of difficult and consistent work to reach the top of combat sports. This contrasts with Carlos Prates, who has competed professionally at Muay Thai in the past and faced Dave Leduc. It comes from a consistent fighting culture with looser training standards. This may nagging our Western martial artists, but for many Muay Thai legends, this type of lifestyle worked surprisingly well.
Will the rising MMA star lifestyle finally come back to haunt him in the future? That’s pretty likely, but for now the man has made quite a name for himself as a chronic smoker.