Chael Sonnen Says He'll Soon Be Oregon Governor

Governor Chael P. Sonnen ... coming shortly to the Oregon state capitol building?!

Hell yes, if you ask the MMA legend, who matter-of-factly told TMZ Sports this week ... "I will be governor soon!"

47-year-old Sonnen was born and raised in Oregon -- where he lives to this day.

With violent crime on the rise over the past few years, we asked Chael if he could clean things up inside the Beaver state.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake. Instantly. Instantly. I could bring my old college wrestling team, deputize them, and we would walk through the state in a matter of hours. There are all sorts of ways to clean this state up. We've got resources, we've got funding, and we even have good people, but we stop them because we're weak. We're very weak here."

The undefeated fighter continued ... "It wasn't like that when my ancestors came across the Oregon Trail. You never heard about the Michigan trail, or the Pennsylvania trail, or the Wisconsin trail. there's one trail and it's the Oregon trail. And when those good ol' boys came, they worked real hard from sun up to sun down, they read their bibles which they held in one hand, but they had a sex shooter on their hip just in case."

"And out in Oregon, I fall into the category of 'just in case!'"

The next election in OR goes down on November 3, 2026 ... just 21 months away.

Until he assumes the state's top role, Chael has a bunch going on. In addition to his super popular YouTube channel, The Bag Guy is set to coach the 33rd season of The Ultimate Fighter, opposite the legendary Daniel Cormier.