‘The Celebrity Apprentice’ spotlight: Will fighter Chael Sonnen be the villain of the season?

Let’s start this particular “Celebrity Apprentice” spotlight article off by thanking the casting gods that Chael Sonnen was put on this season. We’ll be frank — we’re not a fan of the UFC or any MMA fighting in general, so our knowledge of him going into this was marginal at best. However, at the same exact time we recognize entertainment and strong TV characters. Sonnen is that. He’s going to speak his mind, he’s going to be aggressive, and all of those years of being around promoters and at weigh-ins has clearly allowed him to hone this character that most people casually aware of his sport would equate to a wrestling villain cutting a promo.

It’s hard to gauge how Chael’s actually going to do on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s season, but it should be a fun ride either way.

Claim to Fame – MMA fighter and commentator, who is best known primarily as a fighter for UFC. If you want us to go more in-depth about that, it’s going to be difficult without us starting to sound like an idiot for not knowing even remotely what we’re talking about here.

Charity – Hire Heroes USA. The title here is pretty self-explanatory, as the organization looks to help military veterans transition over to the civilian world and find great success in virtually anything that they do.

Strengths – The guy is a competitive beast, he’s cutthroat, and he’ll do anything and everything that he can in order to win. That puts him at a real advantage in the game over some other people who are probably there more in order to build their image or come across as nice people. Sonnen’s there to execute his goals, raise money for his charity, and probably to win at almost all cost.

One other thing that should be interesting about him, beyond the fact that he seems to be the most cutthroat person on his season, is that he could have a very different sort of audience that is untapped among the field. Maybe he is a much better fundraiser than we’d predict just because we don’t know the MMA world that well, and there are many top athletes and promoters with a ton of money in it. If he’s got the right connections, he could do very well.

Weaknesses – There’s abrasive, and then there’s Chael Sonnen. The guy’s probably going to rub people the wrong way, and if he messes up big, there’ll be a line of people ready to throw him under the bus and get him sent out. The initial comparison that we can come up with here is Omarosa, someone who during her first season, people were thrilled to get rid of when she made some mistakes. This is a method of playing that can enable you to win (Piers Morgan had a similar style), but it’s also very easy to lose because there is such risk involved.

Prediction – If the video below is any indication, there’ll be a lot of people out there who’ll probably hate Sonnen and think of him as this terrible villain on the show — but we’re also not sure he will care. Without getting a better understanding of who he is (he is playing for a great cause), it’s hard to know if we feel the same. For now, let’s just be happy that this sort of personality was added to the mix this season because entertainment is why we’re watching in the first place. For now, it just seems like too much of an uphill battle for him to win the season playing this hard.

Do you think that Chael could do very well this season? Share below, and head over here to get some other news and spotlights on this “Celebrity Apprentice” season. (Photo: NBC.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXGadFhpbw0