{"id":213186,"date":"2016-12-20T11:23:49","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T19:23:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=213186"},"modified":"2016-12-20T11:23:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T19:23:49","slug":"chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/","title":{"rendered":"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the UFC was purchased by WME-IMG earlier this year<\/a>, there followed a wave of controversial layoffs<\/a>, as everyone from Tom Wright<\/a> to social media specialist Shanda Maloney lost their jobs.<\/p>\n

The latest high-profile UFC employees on the chopping block were UFC Hall of Famers Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell<\/a>, who were given desk jobs with the company when they hung up their gloves. Interestingly, however, fellow Hall of Famer Forrest Griffin, who was given a similar position when he retired from fighting, was not canned by the company.<\/p>\n

In a recent episode of his podcast\u00a0You’re Welcome,\u00a0<\/em>three-time UFC title challenger and current Bellator star Chael Sonnen gave his take on this ordeal, explaining that Griffin was the only former fighter of the bunch to take his job seriously.<\/p>\n

His words (transcribed by\u00a0Rory Kernaghan<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Low Kick MMA<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fairness, if I\u2019m buying a company I\u2019m gonna look and see where the waste is,\u201d Sonnen explained. \u201cIf I\u2019m letting Marshall Zelaznik go, I\u2019m letting these two knuckleheads who are on $30K a month, but don\u2019t even live in the state go. Do you know why [Forrest Griffin] kept his job?\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"forrest\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the only one of the three who took his job seriously,” Sonnen continued. “What was supposed to happen, from a UFC standpoint, they looked after some of their boys who looked after them. The UFC was getting some bad PR for not looking after their fighters, and they also wanted to give the guys who did carry lifting early on some jobs that last forever. Chuck got the first one, and it\u2019s $30K a month, and he doesn\u2019t have to do anything. This is before the police ran him out of San Luis Obispo, so he wasn\u2019t even in the state. Matt Hughes still isn\u2019t in the state, he lives on the farm in Illinois. These are literally fake jobs.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThey give a job to Forrest, and he takes one look at it and decides to take the job seriously. He shows up at 9:00 a.m. on Monday morning and they don\u2019t even have an office for him because it wasn\u2019t a real job. He just kept coming in, and then he started sitting in on meetings. If anyone was gonna keep the job it\u2019s Forrest because he has contributed.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Do you believe Sonnen’s account of Hughes and Liddell’s firings? Sound off, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the UFC was purchased by WME-IMG earlier this year, there followed a wave of controversial layoffs, as everyone from Tom Wright to social media specialist Shanda Maloney lost their jobs. The latest high-profile UFC employees on the chopping block were UFC Hall of Famers Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, who were given desk jobs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":197684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10104,10653],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nChael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the UFC was purchased by WME-IMG earlier this year, there followed a wave of controversial layoffs, as everyone from Tom Wright to social media specialist Shanda Maloney lost their jobs. The latest high-profile UFC employees on the chopping block were UFC Hall of Famers Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, who were given desk jobs […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sonnen-analysis.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\"},\"wordCount\":424,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Chael Sonnen\",\"Forrest Griffin\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2016\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\",\"name\":\"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Chael Sonnen\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\",\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"description\":\"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his | BJPenn.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his | BJPenn.com","og_description":"When the UFC was purchased by WME-IMG earlier this year, there followed a wave of controversial layoffs, as everyone from Tom Wright to social media specialist Shanda Maloney lost their jobs. The latest high-profile UFC employees on the chopping block were UFC Hall of Famers Matt Hughes and Chuck Liddell, who were given desk jobs […]","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00","og_image":[{"width":730,"height":380,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Sonnen-analysis.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Tom Taylor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tom Taylor","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/"},"author":{"name":"Tom Taylor","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87"},"headline":"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his","datePublished":"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/"},"wordCount":424,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Chael Sonnen","Forrest Griffin"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2016","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/","name":"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00","dateModified":"2016-12-20T19:23:49+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/chael-sonnen-liddell-hughes-lost-ufc-jobs-griffin-kept\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MMA News","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Chael Sonnen","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/chael-sonnen\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Chael Sonnen: Why Liddell and Hughes lost their UFC jobs, but Griffin kept his"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA & UFC News, Results & Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87","name":"Tom Taylor","description":"Tom Taylor is a globetrotting writer currently based in Ottawa, Canada. He is a staff writer for BJPenn.com, and also covers mixed martial arts for Fightland and Vice Sports. Follow him on Twitter @TomTayMMA.","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/tom-taylor\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213186"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54430"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}