Chael Sonnen reacted, in typical fashion, to Karl-Anthony Towns' long-range three-pointer, which helped the New York Knicks overcome the Detroit Pistons in a razor-thin 94-93 win in Game 4. It was round one of the playoffs and Sonnen's response was more of a taunt at another MMA analyst.
World-renowned combat sports journalist Ariel Helwani took to X/Twitter to hail Towns' effort as one of the greatest shots in NBA history. Unfortunately, many regarded his remark as hyperbolic, given that Towns' shot, while exceptional, is not nearly the all-time great three-pointer Helwani made it out to be.
This prompted Sonnen to respond sarcastically to Helwani, saying:
"Yeah. Dude took the ball, threw it all through the air, then made it go right into the basket. Never seen anything like it."
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Sonnen and Helwani had a fairly public feud not too long ago, but seem to be on somewhat better terms now. 'The American Gangster' is also known for being hyperbolic himself, or making statements that sports fandoms occasionally raise eyebrows over.
He recently claimed to have been fed insider information on Islam Makhachev's next UFC lightweight title defense being against Justin Gaethje, yet previously claimed that Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall was as good as done, which has turned out to be false.
This same sensationalist streak was present in his MMA career, as he used the gift of gab to earn unwarranted opportunities. The most visible example was a light heavyweight title fight against the division's then champion, Jones, at UFC 159. Despite his best attempts, he never succeeded in capturing UFC gold.
The closest he ever came was UFC 117, when he dominated the great Anderson Silva in a middleweight title fight, knocking him down and outwrestling him for the near-full 25 minutes before tapping out to a last-ditch triangle armbar from 'The Spider.'
Chael Sonnen's protegé has an antagonistic relationship with one of the NBA's greatest
Colby Covington, who is Chael Sonnen's heir apparent, is one of the most hyperbolic trash-talkers in UFC history. One of his most well-known feuds, albeit one-sided, is with LeBron James.
In a four-year-old post, Covington wrote on X:
"When are you gonna speak up about Hong Kong @KingJames? Oh that's right, you can't. You're a Chinese finger puppet!"
'Chaos' has repeatedly taken aim at James throughout the years, but has rarely garnered a response. Curiously, Sonnen himself has had something of an adversarial dynamic with James, once accusing him of using performance-enhancing drugs.
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