Chael Sonnen: The WWE offered me $5 million to leave UFC
Retired UFC star Chael Sonnen continues to make headlines with his new podcast, You're Welcome. First, he got Georges St. Pierre to open up about UFO encounters, and then The American Gangster claimed that he was offered millions of dollars by pro-wrestling outfit WWE to leave the UFC and become a wrassler.
"Here's the nuts and bolts of it," Sonnen began.
"I was offered $5 million [WWE head] Vince McMahon...Now, I was still under contract with the UFC and I never took this to Dana. I handled it on my own. I told them 'No' and that was the end of that. I never told Dana White this story, but here's why I didn't tell him. I knew if I called Dana and said, 'I've got a $5 million offer from Vince McMahon,' Dana would have matched it." (listen to the full podcast episode below)
Sonnen explained that the reason he didn't go back to UFC president Dana White and try to negotiate a more lucrative deal for himself inside the UFC based on the WWE offer, is because he didn't want to get on White's bad side and be seen as disloyal. "Dana would have come close and now all of a sudden I'm not a loyal employee," Sonnen explained.
"I'm not loyal to the UFC. I'm shopping them and I'm being loyal to myself. That's business. That's how that works and I don't think anyone would have had hard feelings but I didn't see myself that way."
Sonnen became more known for his mic skills than his top-notch fighting ones. Do you think he could have found success in the WWE as a promo-cutting personality?
Let us know in the comments section!
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