Chael Sonnen joins Hulk Hogan’s Real American Freestyle as commentator

Image: UFC

Former UFC star and MMA commentator/podcast host Chael Sonnen is adding the new Real American Freestyle promotion to his list of jobs.

Announced by the promotion co-founded by Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Israel Martinez, the 48-year-old Sonnen will be a live commentator and analyst for the new group.

The group, which will be focused on traditional freestyle wrestling, will hold their first event on August 30th in Cleveland, Ohio.

Both Sonnen and Hogan walked out with Colby Covington for his December 2014 UFC fight against Joaquin Buckley.

Before moving into fighting, Sonnen was a standout amateur wrestler, earning All-American status at the University of Oregon along with being a two-time PAC-10 runner-up. He won a silver medal at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships, and was a two-time Dave Schultz Memorial International Greco-Roman winner.

In his MMA career, he competed in the UFC, WEC and Bellator where he ended his career in June 2019. He also founded Submission Underground in 2016, a submission grappling promotion. Along with his YouTube channel, Sonnen is also a UFC analyst for ESPN.

Sonnen made news Wednesday for publicly apologizing to the couple he confronted in a Las Vegas hallway in December 2021 while allegedly intoxicated. After he was initially charged with battery by strangulation along with 10 misdemeanor battery charges, Sonnen pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of breaching the peace and was fined $750.