Chael Sonnen claims Conor McGregor's rivals are 'afraid' he'll get the next title shot

MMA analyst Chael Sonnen believes UFC lightweights may be afraid of Conor McGregor swooping in and taking their title shot.

The 155-pound division still stands tall as one of the very best in the entire sport of mixed martial arts. That’s been the case for years now and while bantamweight is starting to challenge its dominance, there’s still so much intrigue behind what happens at the elite level within the lightweight title picture.

That’s especially true in the UFC, even though there’s no official champion after Charles Oliveira was stripped of the belt prior to UFC 274.

Alas, even with that happening, ‘Do Bronx’ is still considered to be the best active lightweight in the game right now with many calling for him to take on Islam Makhachev for the vacant strap.

Chael Sonnen wants to see that too, and he can’t quite understand why neither fighter is really speaking up in an attempt to build some hype behind the fight.

“I don’t know why we’re not hearing from these guys [Oliveira and Makhachev]. I don’t know why I’m the only guy talking about it. Representatives of Islam are talking about the fight. Representatives of Charles are talking about the fight. I don’t hear Charles talking about the fight, I don’t hear Islam talking about the fight. I hear Benny [Dariush] speaking up saying you better not do that fight because I’m promised my fight with you, Islam, which I plan to win to get me into the fight with Charles.”

“I don’t know, it’s not quite enough. Maybe when they all get done screaming, maybe one of the hesitations they have, why they don’t wanna be heard, why they don’t wanna put those aces on the table, is that they’re afraid Conor [McGregor] is gonna swoop in and take it all away anyway. It’s a little bit of a