UFC legend Chael Sonnen hung up his gloves in 2019, and has managed to stay true to that retirement amid the new crossover boxing craze.
The former light-heavyweight and middleweight world title contender is renowned as one of the greatest talkers in the history of the sport, and would fit in perfectly to the new sport. But he has only been contacted once, despite having a close relationship with Misfits Boxing boss Mams Taylor.
Sonnen was a famed fighter in his day and held multiple records at the gate until being overtaken by Conor McGregor. And he is arguably more famous as an analyst in his post-competition career, with over 1.28million subscribers to his YouTube channel and millions more across platforms.
Chael Sonnen once held talks for boxing fight against Jorge Masvidal
The closest Sonnen ever came to stepping into the ring for a celebrity boxing match came in the summer of 2021. At the time, Jake Paul was facing Tyron Woodley for the first time and was looking to stack his card with major names.
In an exclusive chat with Bloody Elbow at Bellator Paris this week, the ‘American Gangster’ revealed that he briefly spoke with Showtime Boxing bosses about the fight, but didn’t end up taking the offer and stayed in retirement.
“There was one time,” he teased. “There was talk at one point, who was my opponent going to be? It was going to be Jorge Masvidal at one point. But we went in a different direction, never with Jake.
“It was Stephen Espinoza [who was putting on the event]. I believe it was the first time that Tyron ended up fighting Jake. There was real brief talk, my phone rang and otherwise there was no other talk than that.”
Chael Sonnen insists that he ‘detests’ Jorge Masvidal amid feud
In the years since that fight fell by the wayside, a true blood feud has developed between Sonnen and Masvidal. The pair were once friendly, but the original UFC ‘BMF Champion’ has now insisted that he would like to fight ‘The Bad Guy’.
“Chael would be somebody I would love to f*** up,” Masvidal told MMAFighting while promoting his upcoming bout against Nate Diaz. “And I would just tell him do all the steroids you want, it doesn’t matter. I’m still going to break your eye orbital.”
Sonnen initially told Bloody Elbow: “I have no heat with Masvidal. I was just talking to Mike Kogan about it last night and we were saying Masvidal and Diaz is a real thing.
“They’re going to go out and compete because there was a date change and even a venue change. But he said ‘no man, it’s game on with those two’.”
But when pressed on claiming there isn’t a feud, Sonnen turned on his trademark style as he claimed to have misinterpreted what was being asked. “Oh I’m sorry did I say there’s no beef? I must have misunderstood the question.
“I despise Jorge Masvidal, if Jorge Masvidal and his little hoodlum buddies ever decided to walk up on Chael Sonnen they would look around and after I laid them all out they’d think ‘man, we should have brought more people’.”
Chael Sonnen makes steroid admission as he calls out Jorge Masvidal
The feud between Sonnen and Masvidal seems to stem from an ethical dispute the former welterweight title contender has with his rival’s previous use of performance enhancing substances. Sonnen has been unapologetic about his use of steroids in the past, feeling he wasn’t the only one during his era.
“Jorge Masvidal has no business bringing my name out of his mouth,” Sonnen continued. “Did you hear what he says about me? ‘Oh that guy took steroids’. I took all sorts of steroids, Jorge. I can’t believe you didn’t!
“I’m a little bit surprised that somebody as foul of character as Jorge Masvidal is judging me. I mean in all fairness, I’m not a very good guy, but I’m not Jorge Masvidal!”