Chael Sonnen's 5 best beefs over the years

Former UFC middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen has long been renowned as one of MMA’s most outspoken personalities, and this hasn’t changed since he retired.

Perhaps the most notable thing about Chael Sonnen is the fact that he’s willing to verbally spar with just about anyone. A skilled trash talker, it’s also hard at times to know whether he’s serious or not.

Over the years, ‘The American Gangster’ has been involved in some of the sport’s most memorable feuds and rivalries, usually because of his frank nature and willingness to push the envelope.

With that in mind, here are Chael Sonnen’s five best beefs over the years.

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#5. Chael Sonnen vs. Ariel Helwani

Chael Sonnen and Ariel Helwani got heated in a recent interview [Image Credit: @arielhelwani on X]

The latest entry onto this list has come in the past couple of weeks and involved Chael Sonnen beefing not with a fellow fighter, but with famed MMA journalist Ariel Helwani.

‘The American Gangster’ had made a number of appearances on Helwani’s MMA Hour podcast in the past and even co-hosted his own show with the journalist at one point.

However, his most recent appearance became wildly heated when the two men debated the subject of former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou. Essentially, Sonnen didn’t seem impressed with Ngannou’s decision to leave the UFC, suggesting ‘The Predator’ “fumbled the bag” and would’ve made more money by sticking with his old promotion.

Helwani, meanwhile, accused Sonnen of simply being a “company man” due to his deal with ESPN and suggested he didn’t want to upset Dana White. Remarkably, the discussion became so angry that Sonnen outright threatened to get physical with the journalist – although he wasn’t in-studio at the time – and labeled him a “weasel” before abruptly leaving the broadcast.

Whether this beef goes any further remains to be seen, but based purely on how heated things got, it definitely belongs on this list!

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#4. Chael Sonnen vs. Tito Ortiz

After he departed the UFC in 2014, Chael Sonnen went on to compete in Bellator MMA, where he couldn't produce the same kind of rivalries he’d done previously.

However, his beef with former UFC light-heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz did give us some entertaining moments, with both men rolling back the years towards their trash-talking primes.

When the two men were booked to face off at Bellator 170 in January 2017, most fans didn’t expect much from them. However, a wildly entertaining “debate” prior to the fight saw Sonnen flexing his biceps, labeling Ortiz “stupid” and a “pr*ck”, leaving ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ flustered.

Sonnen eventually suffered a submission defeat at the hands of Ortiz, but later claimed that the latter verbally tapped out during the fight in a bizarre rant to Ariel Helwani.

While there was no evidence of this, it’s a line Sonnen has stuck with over the years. As recently as 2019, when Ortiz decided to state that he had no respect for ‘The American Gangster’, Sonnen quickly hit back on Twitter to maintain his claim.

This beef is definitely up there with his best, purely for the levels of frustration Ortiz showed with Sonnen’s trash-talking,

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#3. Chael Sonnen vs. Jon Jones

Jon Jones beefed with Chael Sonnen in 2012 and 2013 [Image Credit: @jonnybones on Instagram]

One of Chael Sonnen’s greatest achievements during his UFC tenure was his ability to literally talk his way into a shot at the light-heavyweight title in 2013, despite not having fought at 205lbs for the best part of a decade at the time.

And while ‘The American Gangster’ was unable to pull off what would’ve been a monumental upset against champion Jon Jones, the bout – and the season of TUF that preceded it – added to his legend and made him a chunk of money, too.

The rivalry started in the summer of 2012. Jones had been booked to defend his title against top contender Dan Henderson. However, when ‘Hendo’ blew out his knee, the UFC offered the champ a list of potential replacements, including Sonnen.

Jones decided to decline any alternative opponent, forcing the promotion to outright cancel UFC 151 entirely. With Dana White and company livid at their titleholder, Sonnen saw an opportunity and took it.

He quickly labeled Jones a coward and accused him of ducking the fight, something that Jones, unsurprisingly, didn’t take too kindly to. He labeled ‘The American Gangster’ a “coward and cheater” in an angry social media post, immediately igniting the feud.

As it turned out, when the two rivals coached against one another on TUF, they were surprisingly respectful of one another. Moreover, when Jones defeated Sonnen at UFC 159, ‘The American Gangster’ gave no excuses.

However, in the years that have followed, the two men have often poked at each other on social media despite there being no chance of a rematch – suggesting that some of the bad blood from this beef remains.

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#2. Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva

The most unpleasant beef of Chael Sonnen’s career undoubtedly came when he embarked on a feud with former PRIDE champion Wanderlei Silva. The bad blood eventually resulted in arguably the most infamous moment in TUF history.

The rivalry started innocently enough, with Sonnen calling Silva out for a fight after defeating Shogun Rua in the summer of 2013. Of course, “innocently” still involved Sonnen comparing Silva to a 'stack of cr*p', in what was one of the more memorable post-fight moments of all time.

Naturally, the UFC were quick to capitalize on the rivalry, and immediately booked Sonnen and Silva to coach the third season of TUF: Brazil, leading to a fight between them once the series ended.

Remarkably, ‘The American Gangster’ had talked so much trash about Silva and his home country of Brazil that he initially needed security to travel, but once the series started, something curious happened.

It quickly became apparent that all of Sonnen’s jibes were essentially an act designed to get fans interested in the rivalry. The only issue was that Silva clearly wasn’t in on the joke.

Eventually, ‘The Axe Murderer’ blew his top during a confrontation in the TUF gym, resulting in a wild physical brawl that had to be separated by the other fighters. Unfortunately, the planned fight between the two bitter rivals never took place in the UFC after both men failed drug tests.

They eventually did fight, but in the Bellator cage in 2017 — three years after the peak of their feud, with Sonnen winning a unanimous decision. Regardless, the bad blood brewed by Sonnen and the chaos it caused makes it one of his best-ever beefs.

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#1. Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva

The greatest beef of Chael Sonnen’s career came against legendary UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva — a rivalry that spanned the best part of two years and encompassed two classic fights.

Incredibly, before this feud, Sonnen was known as a largely vanilla character outside the octagon. When he began to set his sights on ‘The Spider’, though, something changed dramatically.

Suddenly, Sonnen began to talk an insane amount of trash, often taking somewhat questionable angles, even if it mostly came off tongue-in-cheek. Still, the interest levels for his title shot against Silva quickly skyrocketed, turning him into a star.

What turned him into even more of a star was the fact that when it came to fight time, he backed up every word. In an unbelievable fight at UFC 117, ‘The American Gangster’ battered Silva for five straight rounds, and seemed on his way to becoming the new champion until he fell prey to a last-gasp triangle choke.

The rivalry was not over, though. After serving a suspension for a positive drug test, Sonnen returned, destroyed Brian Stann, and cut a legendary promo calling Silva out for a rematch to settle the score.

Eventually, the two men rematched just under a year after their first meeting, and unfortunately for Sonnen, it didn’t go so well. After bossing the first round, he threw an ill-advised spinning back fist in the second and slipped to the ground, and from there, Silva pounced and finished him off.

It honestly didn’t matter, though. Over the space of two years – a lengthy period of which he spent suspended – Sonnen went from being a nobody to being a superstar, and never looked back.