Former UFC headliner Chael Sonnen has claimed on his podcast that the WWE offered him $5 million to leave the UFC and take up pro wrestling. This offer was made by Vince McMahon but Chael turned it down because he wanted to be loyal to UFC President Dana White. Sonnen would have been a natural fit for pro wrestling because he was such a great talker. He became a big MMA draw based on his fight selling promos as much as his ample athletic ability. His feud with Anderson Silva was greatly enhanced by his sharp words and it was one of the best rivalries in all of MMA this past decade. However, it seems very doubtful that Vince McMahon ever made a $5 million offer to Chael. "WWE claims the story is a complete lie," f4wonline writes. Indeed, a $5 million offer to Chael isn't in the realms of what WWE would offer. They did give Brock Lesnar that deal, but Lesnar was a different beast entirely. Chael would have needed a year of training in developmental and there's no way WWE would have upset their mainstay roster by paying a rookie that much. It is true that Chael was UFC to the core and very loyal to Dana White, but of course he'd have taken this deal if it had existed. From 2012 onwards he probably knew his MMA career was winding down and he's now officially retired aged 37 (although it wouldn't surprise us to see him fight again in a year or two). "I was offered $5 million from Vince McMahon...Now, I was still under contract with the UFC and I never took this to Dana. I handled it on my own. I told them 'No' and that was the end of that. I never told Dana White this story, but here's why I didn't tell him. I knew if I called Dana and said, 'I've got a $5 million offer from Vince McMahon,' Dana would have matched it." he stated on his 'You're Welcome' podcast show. "Dana would have come close and now all of a sudden I'm not a loyal employee," he continued."I'm not loyal to the UFC. I'm shopping them and I'm being loyal to myself. That's business. That's how that works and I don't think anyone would have had hard feelings but I didn't see myself that way."
