Jorge Masvidal raised more than a few eyebrows earlier this week when he called out Chael Sonnen for a fight.
“Gamebred” was quite explicit in this callout, insulting Sonnen in a variety of ways before dropping a laundry list of accusations at “The American Gangster’s” feet. It was a solid challenge … if Sonnen was still professionally fighting.
Chael hasn’t competed since 2019 and has comfortably transitioned to being an armchair analyst for MMA. He recently signed a deal to appear alongside Daniel Cormier on a new ESPN2 show, ‘Good Guy / Bad Guy.’ So to say he was a little confused by Masvidal’s callout would be accurate.
“I don’t know if I was challenged or I was threatened,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “If I was a competitive fighter, I would understand: I have been challenged. By a guy much littler than I am, but challenged none the less … But because I’m not a competitive fighter, I felt like I was threatened.”
“Either way, policy will be applied: I will not let him get close. I cannot trust Jorge Masvidal. Jorge Masvidal will be in Miami next week, where I will be [for UFC 299] … I will be the person in the nice trimmed suit with the somewhat dimmed glasses and a crowd of people onlooking. I assume he will be the thug with the hood up that I need to have my eye out for.”
“Jorge Masvidal tried to come at me and call me a fake gangster,” Sonnen added. “I have more felonies than he does, which is jailhouse talk, I wouldn’t expect any of you to be impressed by that. But it means he sleeps on the bottom bunk and he will know what that means.”
Sonnen wasn’t the only name Masvidal dropped — he’s also still trying to land a boxing fight with Nate Diaz. That one makes sense. The two fought for the inaugural BMF belt back in 2019, with Masvidal winning off a cut. They both said at the time that they wanted a rematch. Why not do it now outside of the UFC, when they can both pocket all the money?
Unfortunately for Jorge, the Diaz brothers move in mysterious ways. “Gamebred” can’t seem to get Nate’s attention.
He can, however, get Chael Sonnen’s attention. Will he get Chael in the ring? Five years removed from his last fight, and in a sport where he can’t wrestle? It all seems borderline Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren, which may be the point. In this case, though, Chael gets paid every time he talks, so he’s probably just going to keep punking Masvidal on his socials.
Depending on what he says, he may just want to avoid visiting any steakhouses with the Nelk Boys while in Miami.
This story originally appeared on MMA Mania
