Chael Sonnen is known in the MMA world for his exceptional in-ring skills and also his trash-talking. He often discusses fight events and gives post-fight views on his YouTube channel. The former fighter went on to describe an incident where the 7 feet tall NBA star, Shaquille O’Neal, got pretty close to fighting the former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre.
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Talking about the same, Sonnen revealed how even UFC president Dana White was down for it. Well, this would have been some fight had it happened.
Shaquille O’Neal in martial arts, Dana White wouldn’t have let it go
Shaquille O’Neal has always had a love for martial arts. Even Joe Rogan once talked about his training videos. Rogan even quoted on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience that, “there were videos of him training”.
Talking about the potential match, Sonnen said, “Din Thomas was training Shaquille O’Neal and Shaq wanted to do a match”.
Sonnen stated that he found ESPN was into whatever O’Neal was planning, as he quoted, “whatever Shaq was gonna do, they were very interested”. However, Dana White didn’t seem to be into it until there was a worthy opponent to Shaq.
“But, what about if it was Georges St-Pierre?” Sonnen stated to have asked the same question to Din Thomas, who had laughed it off.
How close did O’Neal come to having a fight?
Given the interest that Shaq has in MMA and thinking about the exposure that this former NBA star vs. former UFC champion was going to gain, having them go against each other didn’t seem a bad idea at all. “We could take the competitive aspect right out of it, so now, it is just for fun,” quoted Sonnen.
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NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 06: Shaquille O’Neal attends AOL Build to discuss his collaboration with Toys For Tots at AOL HQ on December 6, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage)
Chael Sonnen further stated that the mention of Georges St-Pierre got Dana White interested in it. He also reveals that the ESPN guys quoted “We’ll break into SportsCenter tonight to announce a Shaquille O’Neal vs St-Pierre, if you can get it signed”.
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We have often seen retired athletes switching sports to try a hand at other ones. When the participants are like Shaquille O’Neal and they are into the thing, then why not let it happen?
Would you like to see Shaquille O’Neal in a martial arts contest? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
