Chael Sonnen tells ‘the greatest story in all of MMA’

During a recent You’re Welcome podcast, Chael Sonnen, the greatest trash talker since Muhammad Ali, told his best story. It goes back to the night of his UFC debut, a fight with Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral at UFC 55 at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut on October 7, 2005.

“This is the greatest story in all of MMA,” began Sonnen. “I’ve known it for years, I’ve never told it, and why I’m going to finally do it now, I don’t know.”

So Dana White really admires [WWE owner] Vince [McMahon]. He’s always liked Vince. He doesn’t always say that publically. He’ll simply say, ‘Well I’ve got a lot of respect for him’ and that’s where he’ll end it. But he really does admire him, and the WWE business model is what the UFC copied.”

“The way the royalties work, the way the backends work, the locker room bonuses if you will, the negotiations, just the way it works, it’s very close to the WWE’s model. And Lorenzo Fertitta came out as much as to say, ‘Look we studied everybody from the Yankees on down, it’s the WWE that we decided to model ourselves around.’

“Let me start the story. 2005, they are going to fight at the Mohegan Sun. The UFC, in 2005, used to do their PPVs on Friday nights. [It was] before they have now moved to Saturdays. This was also my UFC debut, so I was there for this to happen.”

At the same time in 2005, the UFC had just broken through. They were in the hole, they were gonna sell, they were gonna close up shop. It’s well documented – they were $40,000,000 in the hole. ‘Ultimate Fighter comes out, it’s a huge success, changes everything.

Well at that time ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ was on Spike TV. And when it was on Spike TV, it was on Monday nights, and it came on right after RAW. So Vince McMahon called Dana White and the problem Vince had is that they were advertising ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ during RAW. So Vince is saying to Dana privately, ‘why would anybody watch my scripted show when they can just wait till it’s over to watch your real show. Stop advertising to my audience.’ And Dana shot with him and goes, ‘Vince, I’m on Spike, you’re on Spike. That’s where it ends. Who Spike decides to run the marketing and the advertising and to piggyback off of, man, it’s got nothing to do with me.’ And Vince again puts it on Dana and says, ‘Do not advertise your show during my show again.’

Dana is kind of sitting there shrugging his shoulders going, ‘I’m the wrong guy to be calling.’ Anyway, OK, move on to the next part.

“Mike Goldberg is an announcer for the UFC. All he does is announce. Now, in all fairness, as great as he is, he’s extremely replaceable. I mean, you can replace announcers, right? And they were only doing four or five shows a year back then. It wasn’t the same thing as having Mike Goldberg go somewhere now.

So the night I was going to fight on my debut, the heavyweight championship was on the line that night. It was Andrei Arlovski. Andrei Arlovski, who is the face of the company at that time, because Randy Couture had retired, and Tito Ortiz was in this big pissing match. Andrei Arlovski is the new face. He’s selling all the tickets. He’s doing absolutely everything. He’s getting $18,000 to show and $18,000 to win. Now there wasn’t really sponsors back then. There was definitely no Fight of the Night, or backdoor, or pay-per-view bonus, none of that even existed. So he’s looking at 18 and 18 to headline a card with the biggest prize in all of sport.

“That’s extremely relevant to this story.

That week, Vince McMahon contacts Mike Goldberg and he tells Mike Goldberg, ‘I will give you $100,000 to no-call, no-show the UFC on Friday.’ So Goldberg doesn’t get to warn anybody. He just can’t show up and he can’t call in and warn. He just needs to stick them without an announcer.

“Goldberg does the right thing and the very first person he calls is Dana and Vince tells him, ‘This call never happened and I will wire you this money on your word.’ And Goldberg calls Dana and says, ‘Here is what just happened.’

Dana not only gives Mike Goldberg a brand new half a million dollar contract, but right then realized ‘If he is willing to pay $100,000 for my announcer, who is replaceable, and I’m only paying my main event 18 and 18, I got a problem. This is a level of thinking, of strategy, of business play that I’m just not ready for. Dana White is only like 45 right now. So in 2005, he’s young guy, he’s 32, 33, he’s still trying to figure the world out, and he realizes right then, this is tough. This is a level of thinking, that I’m just not competing at this level right now.

Not only did Goldberg stay, not only did the business change, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ never played Monday nights again. ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ moved to Wednesdays and has never gone back.

That is the number one hottest story in the history of MMA and it has never ever been told and there it is.

“So when you ask me, are they thinking about the WWE, are they thinking about ways it puts them over even in a worst case scenario … ABSOLUTELY.”

On You’re Welcome! With Chael Sonnen superstar Chael Sonnen speaks his mind and interviews MMA studs and legends. As Chael says “I do the thinking so you don’t have to. Listen, learn, and then follow me blindly as I show you the world as it ought to be.”

H/T BJPenn.com