Retired MMA star Chael Sonnen was detained by police and given five misdemeanor battery citations after an alleged altercation at the Four Seasons hotel in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
According to TMZ, the 44-year-old former UFC and Bellator star was alleged to have been seen banging on the door of a room at the hotel at around 7pm on Saturday night.
A couple then walked by and an altercation occurred, though the reason for it remains unclear. Sonnen was reported to have been “easily handling the man,” and the woman began screaming, which led to someone calling the police.
A brief video of a bare-chested Sonnen being led away from the hotel hallway by police has since emerged and one officer can be heard asking, “where’s that female that was hit who said she was punched in the face?”
Despite being detained, Sonnen wasn’t arrested due to the fact that the police hadn’t personally witnessed the incident.
Sonnen retired from the sport in 2019 after a TKO loss to Lyoto Machida in the Bellator promotion and these days is a prominent MMA analyst for ESPN as well as having his own successful YouTube channel and podcast.
Sonnen has been a vocal critic of current UFC star Jon Jones for his various run-ins with the law over the years, including the former light-heavyweight champion’s own arrest and subsequent charges stemming from a physical altercation at a Las Vegas hotel following a UFC Hall-Of-Fame ceremony earlier in the year.
As such, Jones was quick to react to news of Sonnen’s own battery citations.
“Chael Sonnen, I’m not gonna sit here and celebrate you getting battery charges against a female last night,” Jones wrote on Twitter. “That would make me like you, and I’m nothing like you. Instead I will wish your family well, I wish the victims family well.”
“It’s funny how the people who criticize and judge you the most have some of the nastiest things in their closet. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. You’ll get no stones from me. Good luck.”
Jones own arrest had stemmed from allegations that he’d been involved in a domestic violence incident with his long-time girlfriend after returning to their hotel room to get $10,000 so he could go to a strip club following his hall-of-fame induction.
Coincidentally, Jones own charge was dropped just last week after he accepted a plea deal that saw him plead no contest to a misdemeanor charge of destruction of property.
