Boxing promoter contacts Chael Sonnen over McGregor vs. Paul comments

Former UFC title challenger, commentator and podcast host Chael Sonnen was skeptical about the rumored Conor McGregor and Logan Paul boxing match potential payouts.  Earlier this week, Sonnen told his YouTube channel viewers not to believe a word about a $250,000,000 payday.

Since making those statements, Sonnen was contacted by a fight promoter claiming there actually is a billionaire in India willing to fork over that amount of money..  

"There's nothing that makes sense about this (boxing match), and that within itself doesn't disqualify it," Sonnen said on his YouTube channel.  "These guys got ahold of me directly, and one of my larger arguments on how we know that it is not true that Conor McGregor and Logan are going to compete, one of the larger arguments that I had was that it was believed that this absurd amount of money being put up was to help bring in tourism to the country of India, but it's not being done by the Indian government.  It's being done by some rich billionaire."

When contacted, Sonnen was told that he got that part of the situation wrong.  The fight isn't to promote tourism in India, but there is a billionaire financier seeking International recognition.  And they're legitimately working to put the match together.    

"That would be a very silly fight to do," Sonnen said.  "It would just be a silly fight.  There's nobody that's trying to get that fight.  If you're going to do a boxing match, get some boxers.  That's just what you would do."

Chael Sonnen thinks India billionaire could book McGregor vs. Paul

The landscape of combat sports has changed in recently years.  Influencer boxers have raked in massive paydays, new promoters have entered the game, and unlikely stars have emerged.  But it's still prize fighting and money rules the roost. If a billionaire were willing to dish out that amount of money on a boxing match, they'd likely be able to get it done.

"If you don't have the ability to get the best guys, that's when you start getting silly," Sonnen said.  "You could get that done.  As silly as it would be.  But if you want to write a check, you can definitely get that done.  And now it's sounding that's exactly how they're doing it, that they're going through WME (William Morris Endeavor).

"From what they contacted to tell me is that Dana White is involved.  As a matter of fact, Dana has even made a statement about it.  And his statement was, 'We've got a fight going on that's going to really grab you guys.  It's going to be an OSHI moment that you would have never seen coming.'  And I did see Dana make that comment."

"The way this story is being told directly from this organization directly to me is that they're doing everything right," Sonnen continued.  "They're not attempting to poach two fighters from other places.  They're going to their managers.  They're working out a deal."