Chael Sonnen: Despite UFC inaction, Bryce Mitchell will face punishment for pro-Hitler comments

USA Today

31-01-2025

Bryce Mitchell isn't exactly off the hook for his pro-Hitler comments, despite the UFC not taking direct action, says Chael Sonnen.
Mitchell, a current UFC featherweight, made objectively disgusting remarks on the first episode of his 'ArkanSanity Podcast,' stating Adolf Hitler was 'a good guy' while also denying the Holocaust as a real historical event.
At the first given opportunity, UFC CEO Dana White addressed Mitchell's rant unprompted at the Power Slap 11 post-match press conference. White explained that he and the UFC's official stance was one of 'beyond disgust,' but the Las Vegas-based MMA promotion would take no action.
Sonnen admitted he was not fully informed about the situation but felt comfortable enough to comment on the UFC's reaction to Mitchell's comments.
'There's a few words that just don't work,' Sonnen told MMA Junkie. 'I had this talk with my children. There's a few words that don't work; one of them starts with the letter 'N.' Another one of them starts with the letter 'F,' and you can't do Nazi and Hitler. You just can't. You can't make those comparisons; you can't praise.'
Sonnen, a Fight Wing UFC Hall of Famer for his part in the UFC 117 title fight against Anderson Silva, recalled an incident in college when he insulted someone using the Nazi label, but was scolded by his professor.
'I put somebody down in college,' Sonnen explained. 'I was insulting a bad person and I used the word Nazi. Somehow, I made a compairison, 'like the Nazis.' That professor kept me after class and he said, 'Do you know who they are?' I said, 'Yeah.' And he was against the guy that I was schooling. I was on the right side of this, and the professor agreed.
'He said, 'You don't ever compare anybody to them. You don't ever try to tell me somebody's bad, and compare them to that, because nobody is that.' And it changed me. And if Bryce has never had that talk like I had, and he's getting it right now from the UFC, I will bet you, much like me, he will learn from it.'
Even though the UFC did hand down a punishment to Mitchell, Sonnen firmly believes there will still be repercussions for the 30-year-old featherweight.
'Please understand, there's a checks and balances for these guys that run their mouth or say something bad or say something that's really offensive,' Sonnen said. 'There's no passes. … There's other things you can do, there's checks and balances. Mark my words, he's having calls from whatever sponsors he's got, he doesn't have them anymore. In the best case scenario, they all got frozen – in a best case scenario.
'Now, the audience is going to look at him different. Those things don't go away. To pretend that there's not a punishment, is not true. Do you need big brother to come in and hand him the ultimate ax? That's a different conversation. There's different levels to things. There's criminals out there, but some of them jaywalk, and some of them rob a bank. There's different levels, and there's checks and balances for all of them. So please, let's not pretend that Bryce has got away with something here. He most definitely did not.'