Chael Sonnen Doubts Holly Holm’s 17 Boxing Championships
Former UFC title contender and now working as an analyst for ESPN, Chael Sonnen was at one point one of the most popular UFC fighters that they’ve had in years.
Now, Sonnen is a thorn in the UFC’s side when it comes to his over the top, but the majority of the time correct information that he says not only while appearing on ESPN, but his podcast and other interviews.
Sonnen recently appeared on Submission Radio to discuss various topics. During the interview, Sonnen was asked about Holly Holm facing Ronda Rousey for the women’s bantamweight championship at UFC 193.
Sonnen brought up Holm’s claim to seventeen boxing championship wins. For the record, before transitioning into MMA, Holm was the IBA, WBC, WBF, WBAN, IFBA, WIBA, and NABF welterweight champion of the world. She held a pro record of 32-2-3 in the boxing world.
Sonnen stated that Holm claiming she is a seventeen-time world champion is a ridiculous claim that he simply won’t sign off on.
“Holly is gaining some fan support, and as far as the locker room goes, we can’t get behind her ’cause she’s not telling the truth, that there is no validity that I’m willing to sign off on — and I’m happy for someone to come in and disagree with me, tell me where I’m wrong. But there is no validity to any of her world championships, let alone some ridiculous claim of being a seventeen-time world champion. I mean guys, I can go open the door to my garage right now, invite all comers, and then put a belt around whoever wins and call it the ‘world championship’. And I mean that kind of stuff happens all the time. You see it in arm wrestling. There’s a world championship for some game called ‘cornholing’, which is like some Midwest version of horseshoes. There’s world championships for thumb wrestling, and there’s no validity to this stuff. There’s no validity to her being a seventeen-time world champion, and I don’t believe as an analyst that there’s any validity to any, zero of her championships. I don’t know any tournament she entered where the entire planet was welcome to enter. I’ve been making this claim for a while wanting someone, wanting Holly to disagree with me. I want her coaches to come out and say, ‘Chael, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ It’s never happened. She’s got the thumb-wrestling world championship from some dude’s garage. That’s just the reality. I do think she’s a skilled fighter, I think she’s a good boxer. I don’t know if that matters. I’m 38 years old, I’ve never met a female boxer. Not one. I’ve traveled the world, I’ve seen damn near every continent in every country, I’ve been in every state in America, I’ve never reached across a table and shaken hands with a woman that turned out she was a boxer. So are you the best boxer in the world for females? Maybe? Does that mean you beat about three people? Yeah, it does.”
You can listen to the interview here:
