Tag: MMA Hour

Chael Sonnen Threatens to ‘Strangle’ Ariel helwani in heated debate over francis ngannou

Chael SonnenWednesday’s MMA Hour interview between host Ariel Helwani and Chael Sonnen devolved into a shouting match after the pair…

Chael Sonnen

Wednesday’s MMA Hour interview between host Ariel Helwani and Chael Sonnen devolved into a shouting match after the pair got into a heated debate while discussing Francis Ngannou’s boxing match with Tyson Fury.

Looking to get Chael Sonnen’s take on Francis Ngannou’s split decision loss to ‘The Gypsy King’ in Saudi Arabia, the subject of Ngannou’s purse for the fight quickly came up and proved to be a subject of contention between the former ESPN co-hosts.

Sonned disputed Helwani’s report that ‘The Predator’ would walk away with $10-20 million for his scrap with Tyson Fury, claiming that the event was a failure as far as pay-per-view buys. The conversation grew increasingly hostile with the two men frequently talking over one another. Things finally reached a boiling point when ‘The American Gangster’ threatened physical violence against Helwani.

“Ariel, you keep cutting me off. I don’t understand why you do that,” Sonnen said. “I would strangle you if I was there. You come and talk to me all mouthy like this?”

Chael Sonnen Abruptly Leaves the interview

After a few more minutes of going back and forth, Chael Sonnen abruptly exited the interview leaving Helwani to wonder whether or not the tiff was legit.

Later in the episode, Helwani revealed that he had received a text message from Sonnen, but declined to read it on air, leaving everyone to wonder where their relationship stands.

This is far from the first time that Sonnen and Helwani have gone toe-to-toe over mixed martial arts. It was a regular occurrence during their time as co-hosts on ESPN’s Ariel and The Bad Guy.

You can watch the full MMA Hour interview between Sonnen and Helwani below:

ONE Championship’s Chatri Sityodtong denies $110 million company loss despite ACRA filings: ‘It is inaccurate again’

Chatri SityodtongONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong is calling b*llshit on a recent report that the promotion had lost $110 million in 2010, increasing their total losses to $383 million. The ONE founder made an appearance on ‘The MMA Hour‘ with Ariel Helwani to discuss the recent report that the promotion itself submitted in their 2021 ACRA […]

Chatri Sityodtong

ONE Championship CEO Chatri Sityodtong is calling b*llshit on a recent report that the promotion had lost $110 million in 2010, increasing their total losses to $383 million.

The ONE founder made an appearance on ‘The MMA Hour‘ with Ariel Helwani to discuss the recent report that the promotion itself submitted in their 2021 ACRA (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority) fillings and was quick to dispute the loss when questioned by Helwani.

“I think if you want financial information, go to the most credible sources in the world, like a Bloomberg or Financial Times, which also wrote articles on ONE. Are you gonna go to an MMA website, right?” Sityodtong said when asked about Bloody Elbow’s initial report. “So that just on that level, but on the bigger picture level, okay so it is inaccurate again.”

When asked for specifics about the inaccuracies he is referring to, Chatri Sityodtong danced around the question.

“Go to Bloomberg, go to Financial Times,” Chatri Sityodtong said.

Chatri Sityodtong Gave a Similar Response When Questions About the Promotion’s 2020 Losses

In 2020, the promotion reported an annual loss of more than $47 million. Questioned by Helwani about the report, Chatri Sityodtong once again declined to offer up any explanation and instead insisted was just another situation of a site reporting “inaccuracies and errors.”

“I will say that the internet is a dangerous place and you shouldn’t uh believe everything you read, and there is a lot of factual errors and inaccuracies you know? Uh, but that I mean, um, I’ll just say that we have some big news that I’m announcing and um, that’s, I’ll leave it at that. Some exciting news and yeah, I mean uh I’ll leave it at that. I’ll just say like look, the internet is a dangerous place if you believe everything you read, especially from less than uh… How can I say it politely? I would yeah, I would just leave it at that.”

The “exciting news” Sityodtong was likely referring to in the interview was the promotion’s streaming deal with Amazon Prime Video. ONE partnered with the North American streaming service in early 2022 and held its inaugural event on the platform in August titled ONE on Prime Video 1. Headlining the event was former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson against the reigning ONE flyweight titleholder Adriano Moraes. ‘Mighty Mouse’ captured the ONE world title with a brutal flying knee knockout in the fourth-round.

ONE will be making its long-awaited return to Malaysia for ONE on Prime Video 3 on October 21st with another main event headlined by a former UFC standout, John Lineker. ‘Hands of Stone’ is the reigning ONE bantamweight champion. He meets No. 2 ranked contender Fabricio Andrade in the main event.

SBNation Owner Vox Media Purchases MMAFighting from AOL


(Time will tell what changes are in store for MMAFighting)

Well, apparently the rumor that MMAFighting.com’s time as an AOL property was ticking down had some teeth to it.

CagePotato has learned that the popular MMA website has been bought by Vox Media.

Vox Media, formerly SB Nation, is a web media company whose properties include SBNation.com, BloodyElbow.com, MMAMania.com, BadLeftHooks.com, CagesideSeats.com, GirlsGuidetoMMA.com and HeadKickLegend.com. The company owns more than 300 sports-based blog sites — the majority of which are staffed by part-time editors and are largely based around stories and posts submitted by fans.


(Time will tell what changes are in store for MMAFighting)

Well, apparently the rumor that MMAFighting.com’s time as an AOL property was ticking down had some teeth to it.

CagePotato has learned that the popular MMA website has been bought by Vox Media.

Vox Media, formerly SB Nation, is a web media company whose properties include SBNation.com, BloodyElbow.com, MMAMania.com, BadLeftHooks.com, CagesideSeats.com, GirlsGuidetoMMA.com and HeadKickLegend.com. The company owns more than 300 sports-based blog sites — the majority of which are staffed by part-time editors and are largely based around stories and posts submitted by fans.

Sources indicate that MMAFighting employees were told by their future employers that when the site joins the SBNation network things won’t change for the most part, which for obvious reasons caused some concern when some longtime staffers were informed that their services are no longer required a short time later.

It’s unclear whether or not the current MMAFighting team will be kept intact or if some of Vox’s other MMA writers will be added to the mix, but it’s unlikely that the site will continue to exist entirely unchanged when the purchase is finalized.

For instance, AOL spared no expense flying its staffers — including  multiple writers, videographers and photographers — around the world to events in places like Australia, the UK and United Arab Emirates. What are the chances that SBNation will do the same?

Another facet of MMAFighting that will likely unfortunately change at least somewhat is Ariel Helwani’s popular The MMA Hour radio show, which is recorded and filmed at AOL’s studio in New York City. Unless Vox (which is based out of Washington) plans on renting out NY studio space and hiring sound and video production staff, it’s very unlikely that The MMA Hour will survive in its current format, which would be unfortunate as it’s a great show.

Time will tell if the outlet suffers any major overhaul from the purchase, but there’s a pretty good chance that it won’t be business as usual when the new owners take possession and that we’ll see a new look MMAFighting.com. Hopefully for the sake of its employees and fans of the site, the changes aren’t drastic.

A confirmed date for the finalized transaction hasn’t been indicated, but considering that meetings with current MMAFighting staff have taken place and personnel changes have already been implemented, it’s likely it will happen in the coming weeks.