All RSS feed content is owned by the respective 3rd party website.
Dana White’s got jokes.
The UFC boss is well aware of the world’s newest MMA promotion, the GFL, which has been taking the company’s former stars left and right for legacy-like fights in a lucrative season format. The GFL signed big names by the dozen, like Tony Ferguson and Chris Weidman.
Much of their roster is filled with fighters age 35 and above, the GFL going for all sorts of fighters from Dillon Danis to the happily-retired Chael Sonnen, who told MMA Junkie he declined an offer recently.
Tatiana Suarez shares brutal battle scar from Zhang Weili fight
Opting not to fight again, Sonnen has taken a coaching role in The Ultimate Fighter 33 opposite Daniel Cormier, the former two-division UFC champion.
Cormier, 45, retired in 2020 and while it’s a tradition for coaches to fight at the end of the TUFC season (not for all), DC says he simply doesn’t have the fighting itch anymore.
“We aren’t fighting,” Cormier said at TUF 33 media day. “I told Dana [White] this yesterday, I don’t wanna fight anybody because he was making fun of us. He goes, ‘Did the GFL call you guys?’ I was like, ‘They didn’t even call me because they know I don’t wanna fight and Chael probably turned him down.’ So like, we’re good. I go, ‘I just have no desire to fight anyone.'”
(Exclusive) Kody Steele talks first loss at UFC 312, viral slugfest vs. Rongzhu
It’s more of a Conor McGregor vs. Urijah Faber-type season of The Ultimate Fighter, though with much friendler chemistry between UFC employees and podcast partners Sonnen and Cormier.
On the sidelines at the beginning and the end of the show, Cormier offers a solution for The Ultimate Fighter finale fight… not him and Sonnen, but two UFC welterweights instead.
“Chael and I did come up with an idea,” Cormier explained. “I have Michael Chiesa on my coaching staff. Chael has Colby Covington on his coaching staff. Why don’t they just fight and Chael and I coach them?”
“Obviously that’s about as close as we would both get to going back into the Octagon. So, why don’t those dudes just fight each other?”
The Ultimate Fighter 15-winner Michael Chiesa’s been angling at a fight with Colby Covington for years now, but to no success. Former interim champion Covington has stayed fighting the elite for the most part, finally fighting down the rankings against Joaquin Buckley in December, losing by TKO.
Michael Chandler calls out Paddy Pimblett for UFC’s International Fight Week
Chiesa’s coming off back-to-back wins over TUF 13‘s Tony Ferguson and Max Griffin.
• Joe Rogan says best heavyweight in MMA history didn’t fight in the UFC
• KSI names 5 UFC fighters who have turned down fighting him
• Sean Strickland’s coach brutally honest on Dricus du Plessis fight: ‘Like he was sleepwalking’
• Best fights and fighters to watch at UFC Fight Night Cannonier vs. Rodrigues
Stick with MMA Knockout for more daily coverage of the UFC, MMA, and Boxing.
