Chael Sonnen believes that there was discussion about Conor McGregor self-promoting a bout in Croke Park against Ben Henderson before the latter signed with Bellator.
Chael Sonnen is known for saying some pretty outlandish things about MMA. The retired former UFC title challenger regularly uses his podcast to talk about the biggest stories in the sport, often offering insight that few people have. In regards to the Conor McGregor situation surrounding UFC 200, he already speculated that the whole deal was a contract dispute and the UFC might replace him with Georges St-Pierre.
Now, he has an even bigger angle – that McGregor wants to self-promote, and was discussing a bout in Croke Park. Not only that, it was against a fighter that recently left the UFC for Bellator. Here’s what Chael had to say about it in his Beyond The Fight segment:
“I don’t know what his future is. I can tell you what he wants it to be. I can tell you what his vision is. Everyone’s got a vision and a dream, all you people do too. He’s no different. He wants to do self-promotions. He wants to become a promoter. He believes that he could book Croke Park and sell it out. There was a time even when there was a little bit of discussion going on (about) that.
“I believe he reserved some name, ‘McGregor Promotions’ or something silly like that. And Ben Henderson was floating around, he wasn’t under contract with anybody. Now he’s under contract with Bellator, but for a minute he wasn’t. Conor thought ‘well look, I’m gonna do my own promotion, I can sell out Croke Park right in my hometown. I can find some TV sponsor to partner up with me, and I’ve got an opponent, his name is Ben Henderson.’
How close was that to reality? I don’t think it was very close. But he had that vision. That’s how everything starts, it starts with an idea.”
Obviously this is highly unlikely, for many reasons. But it’s an interesting concept to think about. You can check out the video above to hear Chael’s thoughts on how Dana White is handling this situation with McGregor, why a deal is a deal, and what should be done with the featherweight title.