The heated rivalry between the UFC and WWE dates longer than the current generation of fans cares to know. UFC president Dana White has gone on record saying how difficult it has always been to do dealings with WWE chairman Vince McMahon. While the two juggernauts have always had mutual respect and admiration for what they do, things weren’t always as nice as how they seemed to be.
In Late February this year, former UFC fighter Chael Sonnen guested on ‘The MMA Hour Show’ with Ariel Helwani. During a segment of the podcast, the 46-year-old shared an interesting story that never saw the light of the day until now. The story revolved around his 2010 title fight against the then-champion Anderson Silva.
Chael tells story of being offered $1M by WWE if he would have beaten Anderson Silva at UFC 117 and shown up on Raw on Monday with the UFC belt. WWE said the condition was he couldn’t tell Dana.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/G5ZvxfASuG
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) February 27, 2023
Sonnen shared that if he were to win the bout, the WWE promised to pay him a million dollars provided he appeared on Monday Night Raw with the UFC strap. Chael shared, “I was just getting ready to fight Anderson Silva, and they said if you beat Anderson and you show up on Raw with the belt, we’ll give you a million dollars, [but] you can’t tell Dana. The whole thing is you can’t tell Dana. The million dollars is to stick it in Dana’s a**.”
To fans’ surprise, Chael claimed he wouldn’t have hesitated to take on the offer. He explained, “Till this day, I would have done it. I would’ve taken the belt and been on Raw, I just don’t know how I would’ve stuck it to Dana.” He continued, “I don’t understand how Dana would have any problem with that. I never understood that part.”
WWE hasn’t responded to these claims yet. However, considering UFC’s Pay-per-view threat to WWE’s prime-time shows at the time, Chael might not be lying here after all. It would have been quite a sight to see a UFC athlete making his way to the squared circle. But now with Endeavor’s acquisition of WWE, fans may very well get to witness something similar one day.
Vince McMahon tried to bribe a UFC commentator
In the mid-2000s, the UFC was on the verge of closing its doors. Luckily, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ brought the promotion back to life. While this led the MMA fans to rejoice the moment, a furious Vince McMahon didn’t like what was about to come. The reality show aired right after Monday Night Raw, which seemingly affected the latter’s ratings.
While speaking on his ‘You’re Welcome‘ podcast, Chael Sonnen shone light upon wrongdoing on Vince McMahon’s part. Sonnen shared that the 77-year-old offered a significant amount of money to Mike Goldberg to no-show an upcoming UFC pay-per-view. Mike served as a play-by-play commentator for the UFC at the time.
Chael said, “That week, Vince McMahon contacts Mike Goldberg and he tells Mike, ‘I will give you a hundred thousand dollars 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. He just needs to stick them without an announcer.”
“Vince tells [Mike], ‘This call never happened and I will wire you this money for your work,'” added Sonnen.
Fortunately for the UFC president, Goldberg did right by him and informed him about the secret deal. Dana rewarded Mike with a brand new half-a-million-dollar contract for his loyalty.