It is safe to say that Dana White is the sole reason for the UFC’s grand success. This emotion is often shared by MMA professionals and fans alike. This time, Chael Sonnen commended the UFC CEO for the amazing work. He went on to brand White as one of the best fight promoters in the world.

‘The American Gangster’ referred to the event from 2015, when Conor McGregor faced Chad Mendes at UFC 189. The event broke the US records and garnered $7.2 million in gates. The event took over the expected earnings for McGregor’s bout against Jose Aldo, despite its hype. Undeniably, Sonnen seemed to believe it was all a result of White’s uniqueness.

Chael Sonnen deems Dana White as the best fight promoter

‘The Bad Guy’ took to his YouTube channel, recently, and shared a video wherein he commended the UFC head honcho for running the mixed martial arts promotion like no one could ever do. The former mixed martial artist claimed that it didn’t matter if one talked about a specific combat sport. White had a way of moving forward despite losing the main events.

Sonnen said, “There has been MMA organizations, this is a uniqueness to Dana White, exclusive and only. I don’t care if it’s boxing or you’re doing the unified rules of MMA, there is no promoter anywhere… There has been, excuse me, there is promotions that have gone under because they lose their main event. Dana has lost his main event after putting millions of dollars in marketing that just got lit on fire. He has changed his main event and fallen forward. There is something about the parody of us being able to get something that we weren’t expecting.”

But Sonnen didn’t stop there. He further backed his statements by talking about Conor McGregor and his fights as examples. Without a doubt, ‘The Notorious’ is one of the few fighters who know how to sell a fight. But White seemed to know the matchups that could go off the charts.

While other MMA promotions seemed to drop down in their popularity after failed main events, White along with McGregor had a way with things that propelled the UFC even further despite losing the main event.

Conor McGregor: The savior of Dana White’s UFC?

After stating that White was the best promoter of mixed martial arts in the world, Sonnen backed his words with examples. Undeniably, the first name to pop up in his mind was that of Conor McGregor. He talked about the bout between Mended and the ‘Mystic Mac’. It was indeed the fight that ended up with $100 thousand more gates than what the officials anticipated. Sonnen compared McGregor’s fight with Mendes with the Irishman’s fight against Aldo. 

Sonnen said, “I could give you the night that Chad Mendes fought Conor McGregor and it ended up doing higher than the projections for Conor versus Jose. And Conor versus Jose was going to be the greatest featherweight fight of all time, but there was just something about it.” 

The former UFC contender added that he initially thought McGregor vs. Aldo would be a striking contest. But when McGregor faced a wrestler, it was something that no one in the fighting community had anticipated. “I remember thinking for everything you’ve thought it’s going to be the striking battle between Jose and Conor and all of a sudden it’s not. It’s going to be Conor’s Achilles heel, which is going to be an all-American wrestler,” he continued.

What do you think of what Chael Sonnen said? Do you think Dana White is the best fight promoter? Let us know in the comments down below.