Chael Sonnen – no, James “Jimbo” Duncan, the machete-wielding gang member – has one poignant line in an episode of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent” that premiered in May.
“Not guilty,” he says with conviction inside a mock courtroom after the camera pans past Whoopi Goldberg, who plays Sonnen’s foster mother in the episode “To the Bone.”
But Sonnen, a former University of Oregon wrestler and current Ultimate Fighting Championship star, has a confession: He did his best acting outside of the four short scenes he appeared in during eight days of filming in New York City.
“I was completely pretending that it was something I did my entire life,” said Sonnen, who signed a four-fight contract with online gambling, music and entertainment company Bodog in October. “They handed me my script and told me to go to my wardrobe. My mere presence there, just pretending to be one of the guys, was the acting.”
But Sonnen, who lives in his hometown of West Linn, Ore., and trains in Gresham, Ore., seems omnipresent in the professional world of mixed martial arts.
And his ascension from star wrestler at West Linn High School to elite UFC middleweight fighter hasn’t required any acting.
It has, however, taken a dose of humility.
Sonnen, who’s 30, was a star by high school after he battled at Nationals his junior and senior years. At Oregon, he wrestled in the NCAA Tournament and, his sophomore year, earned All-American honors.
Now, big spenders have dropped as much as $750 to see him fight – and Sonnen gets $35,000 just to step in the ring.
Last time Sonnen went to a Blockbuster, he found his picture on a UFC DVD while making the obligatory new arrival loop.
“It’s bizarre,” said Sonnen, who fights at 185 pounds. “They took a little action still and put it on the back of the movie box. The first one I saw was me screaming in pain.”
His career hasn’t been nearly as painful as its been eye opening.
“I am a country boy so all of the other stuff is interesting,” Sonnen said.

UFC’s Growing Popularity

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, an increasingly popular U.S.-based mixed martial arts organization, can be seen on Spike TV in 36 different countries, which paid $100 million to air fights next year. Pay-per-view and at-gate profits have also been unprecedented, a sign that mixed martial arts has eclipsed boxing and professional wrestling’s popularity, Sonnen said.
“Don King and Vince McMahon can’t say they got that much,” said Sonnen, who has a competition record of 22 wins, eight losses and one draw. “I think the idea that boxing’s champ of the world should be the toughest was dispelled pretty quickly by the UFC.”
Though Sonnen has fought in Costa Rica, Canada, Russia, Brazil, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, he’ll be back home on Oct. 27, headlining SportFight XX.
The event, to be held at the Rose Garden Arena, will include a showcase match between Kacey Uscola, a member of Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den team, and Sonnen.
As always, Sonnen has no plans of straying from his style, which he calls “vale tudo” – Portuguese for “anything goes.”
“A fight should involve, elbows, knees, feet,” Sonnen said.
And if Sonnen wins, odds are that he’ll have beaten his opponent into the ground.
“That’s my style,” said Sonnen, who trains with a group of 11 fighters called Team Quest. “Ground and pound.”
The ground is where Sonnen wants to be.
“That’s where I can take them down and pound them repeatedly,” he said.

Rising Up the Ranks

Randy Couture, the current UFC Heavyweight Champion, was an assistant wrestling coach and strength and conditioning coach at Oregon State University.
Couture wanted Sonnen to come to Corvallis, but Sonnen decided to become a Duck.
The UFC Hall of Famer didn’t take it personally though.
“You can learn so much from a guy who never takes a practice off, no matter how good or bad he feels,” Sonnen said.
The two trained constantly in 1999, one of two years Sonnen finished second in the Pac-10s. A year later, Sonnen trained with the Olympic team.
Now years removed from his college experience, Sonnen has nothing but fond memories of his years in Eugene, where he attended the University from 1996-01.
Sonnen left with a degree in sociology and an unshakable, bordering intractable attitude that he’d be a UFC fighter.
“That is a frustrating part about being a pro fighter,” Sonnen said. “There is no competitive architecture. The UFC has their own recruits.”
So Sonnen kept fighting until his time came.
“I was doing that on the assumption that eventually it would catch the eye of the UFC.”
It was at an Indian Reservation in California that Sonnen got his first taste of big-ticket fighting. He got $1,000 to fight Jason “Mayhem” Miller in 2002 in front of a horde of beer-guzzling bikers.
Eventually, UFC vice president Joe Silva gave Sonnen the call to join the UFC right before a fight in 2005.
Now, Sonnen fights at top-tier venues, in front of thousands of spectators who pay hundreds of dollars to watch the show. Sonnen gets $35,000 to fight in UFC events and an extra $5,000 if he wins.
He’s fought in three UFC fights, including one at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut where he lost to Renato “Babalu” Sobral in October of 2005.
“I was caught in a choke hold and found myself in a submission,” Sonnen said.
Last year in February, Sonnen earned another rematch, but this time against a different opponent. Sonnen took down Trevor Prangley in a unanimous victory. Last May, he lost to Jeremy Horn in a battle at the Staples Center.
But Sonnen’s defeats? Well, he disputes all but one.
“I did get beaten up once,” Sonnen said.
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