Former UFC fighters Jorge Masvidal and Chael Sonnen are involved in a beef. In their long fighting careers, the fighters never encountered each other inside the Octagon. However, the pair are having a go at each other over social media and in interviews long after their careers have stalled.
Masvidal joined the UFC in 2013. His professional fighting career began a decade before he made his UFC debut. ‘Gamebred’ made a name for himself in Bellator and Strikeforce before turning up at the Las Vegas promotion.
On the other hand, for Sonnen, 2013 was the last year he was in the UFC. After making his UFC debut in 2009, Sonnen left the promotion in 2013 and announced his retirement in 2014. However, he came back in 2017 to fight in Bellator. The middleweight fighter fought at light heavyweight and heavyweight at Bellator for two years before retiring for good.
As you can see, their fighting careers never aligned them to fight while they were in the same promotion. But, the two former fighters are putting up a show for the fans outside the Octagon. Let’s take a look at the origins and the timeline of their beef.
Chael Sonnen’s comments about Masvidal vs Colby Covington did not sit well with Gamebred
Masvidal was set to face longtime rival Colby Covington at UFC 272. Sonnen, who is Covington’s inspiration was not too confident of Masvidal’s chances. “If he goes out there and he gets taken down and he gets mauled for 25 minutes, it is going to take a lot of luster off of the shine that is the second biggest draw, the BMF, Jorge Masvidal,” Sonnen said (transcribed by Jeff Walter).
Sonnen further said that this was a career-ending fight for Masvidal. Gamebred was swift to respond. “I personally like Chael — a little bothered by that comment, but it’s kind of like it just sets up the fucking mountain to be a lot higher,” Masvidal told The MMA Hour. “When I climb it, and Chael’s like, ‘I can’t believe you climbed that mountain,’ I’m going to be like, ‘I told you, b*tch.’”
Masvidal, however, faced a unanimous decision defeat against Covington. According to all the judges, Covington dominated the fight.
Jorge Masvidal abused Chael Sonnen in November 2023 to reignite a feud
Sonnen was involved in an altercation with Ariel Helwani of the MMA Hour due to certain disagreements related to Francis Ngannou’s pay as a boxer. During his interview with Helwani, Masvidal called out Sonnen. Among several other insults, Masvidal called Sonnen “a b*tch”. Further, Masvidal said, “I mean he knows that himself. That’s the dirtiest fighter that ever lived. He got popped with like nine substances and still couldn’t win the title.”
Jorge if you wanna scrap
You hafta beat one of my students first
Colby Cov…
Ummmm
Scratch thatLet’s stick to things that are possible
— Chael Sonnen (@ChaelSonnen) November 6, 2023
This began the actual feud between the pair that has continued for months. Sonnen was swift in his response to Masvidal. He was lengthy as well. The American gangster hit Masvidal with a barrage of tweets ranging from his loss to Covington, his loss to Kamaru Usman, and even his legal proceedings against Covington.
After Sonnen directed over a dozen tweets his way, Masvidal claimed Sonnen would never say all that to his face. The current MMA analyst responded to that with three more tweets asking Gamebred to see a therapist.
Masivdal initiates another back-and-forth against Sonnen
During a February 2024 appearance on the MMA Hour, Masvidal targeted Sonnen again. Gamebred is looking to make his boxing debut soon and he claimed offers were floated to Sonnen. However, they were rejected.
Masvidal went off at Sonnen and said, “I can’t stand that lesbian-looking transitional b*tch, Chael Sonnen,… And no offence to lesbians because there’s some hot, cool-ass lesbians out there, it’s just him with them glasses and that haircut – he just, he looks like he’s in transition.”
“I would love to bust up Chael, but he would never get into a boxing ring with me,” Jorge Masvidal added. “…Chael would be one guy that I would love to f*cking break his eye orbital. Just because he’s a cheating f*ck. Like, if you – he’s gotten caught with more substances in his body, than any other competitor in the history.
At one time, he had six or seven different substances in his body for one of his title fights. It’s like, you’re a f*cking piece of sh*t human being. …Do all the steroids you want, it don’t matter, I’m still gonna break your eye orbital, bro.”
Sonnen, again, would not go down without a fight. He took to his YouTube channel to respond to Masvidal. “I will not let him get close. I cannot trust Jorge Masvidal” he said. He called Masvidal a thug and hinted that they might get into a street brawl.
