(Sonnen vows to "bring taxes down, and lay on top of them until my term ends.")

While some fighters can’t even be bothered to show up for practice more than four times in a given week, Chael Sonnen is trying to secure a spot in the Oregon House of Representatives, in the same year that he’s preparing for the biggest fight of his life. On Tuesday, the UFC’s #1 middleweight contender claimed a "landslide" victory in the Republican Party primaries for Oregon’s 37th District, picking up 99.13% of the vote. We should probably mention that Sonnen ran unopposed, and the remaining 0.87% percent of the vote was made up of write-in ballots, most of which probably went to Anderson Silva. But still, Chael’s got momentum on his side. You can learn more about his platform at VoteSonnen.com, where he’s described as a "successful realtor and vice president of Caged Promotions, a sports and music promotion and production company." Sonnen’s main gig as one of MMA’s most insane heels is mentioned nowhere on the site.


On November 2nd, Sonnen will throw down in the general election against Democratic nominee Will Rasmussen, who actually had to beat somebody to win his primary. The election will come about three months after Sonnen’s scheduled title fight with Silva at UFC 117, which means Sonnen could either be champion of the world or dead at that point, depending on how much effort the Spider puts into the matchup.

In 2008, Sonnen’s Team Quest homeboy Matt Lindland also ran for the Oregon House of Representatives. "The Law" defeated fellow Republican Phyllis Thiemann in the primary, but lost to Democrat Suzanne VanOrman in the general election, despite his incredibly persuasive TV ads. Not that political contests should be promoted like MMA fights and pro-wrestling matches, but there’s an obvious "avenge my master" angle that Oregon could really be playing up right now. MAKE IT HAPPEN, DAVE.