Chael Sonnen praises Dana White following news of Israel Adesanya’s new UFC contract: “Elon Musk will not do this”

Chael Sonnen has nothing but praise for Dana White after it was announced Israel Adesanya has signed a new UFC contract.

Adesanya’s deal was announced by his management company and it is said to make him one of the highest-paid fighters in MMA history. For Sonnen, he says White and Adesanya did everything right as the negotiation never went public.

“Dana White re-signed Izzy Adesanya, guys we didn’t even know a negotiation was going on, do you know how cool that is,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Do you know how much I like to see things like this? When a guy is doing, where he’s at in his career, I should never know where he’s at in his contract, whether he’s happy or not on a contract he signed and celebrated at one point. I should never know. The fact that Izzy was to that point of his contract. Did he have one left, does he have three left but they liked him so much they wanted to step in? I don’t know and I don’t need to know.”

Along with having Israel Adesanya re-sign, Chael Sonnen also praises Dana White for how he handles bonuses. Sonnen believes White gets called cheap for no reason as he gives extra money to fighters that is not part of their salary or contract. The former fighter believes no one else does that so it’s time for people to respect White and praise the UFC boss for doing it.

Dana White

“Dana White started giving guys bonuses outside of what their contract called for. When he started doing this, they should’ve put him on the cover of TIME magazine, they should have nominated him for awards, they should’ve praised (him),” Chael Sonnen said. “You guys remember these days? Locker room bonus. We had media that was disclosing what guys got paid… The media, because they couldn’t get the actual numbers because Dana was giving money away that he did not owe. Our own media tried to make it back-handed… Our own media was trying to label and tried to make it derogatory. I only bring that to you because for someone to be in Adesanya’s spot that is a needle-mover, who is a star… Adesanya does everything right, he’s in a contract negotiation and I didn’t hear about it. That’s the way it should be because it’s none of my goddamn business…

“He’s going to make a million dollars, back-end money, plus the $600,000 that was disclosed, plus Reebok money… This is a gift being given by a very generous guy [Dana White]. Nobody else in business will do this,” Sonnen concluded about White-Adesanya. “Elon Musk will never do this and never has, Bill gates will not do this and never has, Tim Cook will not do it and never has, Steve Jobs will not do it and never has. It’s the single most generous thing that I personally have been able to witness.”

Do you agree with Chael Sonnen?