Conor McGregor continues to tease his next move as a boxing match against Logan Paul in India but one UFC Hall of Famer has a hard time believing any of that is true.
After addressing rumors about his return to the UFC, McGregor blindsided the whole world when he revealed he was in negotiations for a fight against Paul with the Ambani family — led by Mukesh Ambani, a billionaire who is the richest person in Asia — footing the bill. Reports then began surfacing that McGregor was looking at a potential $250 million payday for the fight but Sonnen doesn’t buy a single word of it.
“He is claiming that he is going to get $250 million to go box Logan Paul in India for a billionaire investor who wants to bring attention and tourism to India,” Chael Sonnen said on his YouTube channel.
“You’ve got to understand Conor is not boxing [Logan] Paul. There is not a billionaire in India looking to bring people over and change tourism. That is something exclusively done by a government and that government has done it in one place and that’s [Saudi Arabia] in the Middle East. Third, there is no check for $250 million. He kind of went right down a list of joking. He’s kidding. You’re not supposed to believe any of that to be true.”
When it comes to increasing tourism, Sonnen makes a fair point when considering all the ways Turki Alalshikh — a member of Saudi Arabia’s royal court and the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority — has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to bring some of the biggest boxing matches to his home country over the past couple of years.
That said, Ambani is a noted sports fan as the owner of the Mumbai Indians, an Indian Premier League cricket team, and he’s also the founder of the India Super League, a soccer league in India.
Regardless, Sonnen just doesn’t buy that Ambani is putting up that amount of money to bring McGregor and Paul to India for a fight that doesn’t really do much for his notoriety or bottom line financially.
“One thing about a billionaire that is willing to spend that money for whatever the reason, is he is one of the people that don’t like [being unknown],” Sonnen explained. “And I will tell you this, if you are really rich but you don’t have fame, that bothers them. The only thing worse is to be really famous and not to be rich.
“So if there was somebody handing out $250 million checks, he’s not going to an Irishman under contract with the UFC, an American under contract with the WWE, bring them to India and walk around known as ‘rich India dude.’ He is going to give you his name every chance that he has. That is the commodity he is getting in exchange for the ridiculous sums of money.”
As far as the fighters being under contract, Paul isn’t as restricted as McGregor because he isn’t exclusive to WWE outside of professional wrestling but the UFC definitely maintains more control over the former two-division champion when it comes to where or who he’s allowed to fight.
It’s just another obstacle that has Sonnen shutting down any hope that McGregor actually ends up facing Paul in a boxing match in 2025.
“There’s no truth,” Sonnen said. “There’s no India new boxing league. There’s no Conor and Paul. There’s no $250 million. There was no part of the story that was true.”
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