UFC 117 - Chael Sonnen vs Anderson Silva


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Chael Sonnen (24-10-1 MMA, 4-3 UFC) will get his shot at champion Anderson Silva (26-4 MMA, 11-0 UFC) on Aug. 7 at UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif.

The mercurial middleweight confirmed the upcoming bout at a UFC Fight Club Q&A session on Friday, though he did say one condition existed for the fight.

Sonnen is in for the contest, but he's giving the champion a chance to back out.

"That is true on one condition: if diplomacy fails," Sonnen said. "I am giving Anderson Silva the fair chance to back out. But as sure as night follows day, if he does not heed my warning, I will declare war, and on Aug. 7 at 7 p.m. his 15 minutes of fame will come to an abrupt halt."

Sonnen earned his shot at the middleweight title with a February win over fellow contender Nate Marquardt. Due to injuries suffered in the contest, Sonnen was unavailable to face Silva at UFC 112 earlier this month, so Demian Maia took the fight, instead.

Sonnen actually lost to Maia at UFC 95 in February 2009, but he has since rattled off three-straight wins over Marquardt, Yushin Okami and Dan Miller.

Meanwhile, Silva pushed his UFC record to 11-0 with a lackluster unanimous-decision win over Maia. While Silva has soured some fans with his inability to finish some of his recent opponents, he's still widely regarded as the best fighter in mixed martial arts.

While Sonnen has earned mixed results during his seven-year career, the Oregonian said pedigree has little to do with what will happen in the contest. Instead, he insists what is essentially a striker vs. grappler affair will come down to a test of will.

"He is a fantastic fighter," Sonnen said. "I am not delusional to his skill set. ... I don't care if he is better. He is better, but I'm tougher.

"For 25 minutes, we're going to find out who's tougher. Seven minutes in, we're both going to be tired. Ten minutes in, we're both going to be hurting. Fifteen minutes in, we're both going to want to be out of there, but one of us is going to stick around and grind it our for 25 minutes, and I propose it's me."

(MMA Junkie)

I'm looking forward to seeing Chael defeat Silva. By KO if possible. But a decision after a 5 round beating is fine too.

It's a win-win for the fans. If Silva doesn't step up, we get a new champion who will. If Silva steps up, it will be an awesome fight. :cool:

Don't fire him just yet? First feed him to GSP and let GSP show the world who the better fighter is. I know Silva doesn't necessarily deserve to fight GSP, but let's face it, no one currently in the middleweight division is good enough to beat him. I'd put Bisping ahead of Sonnen in the running. But the question is, why not give the next shot to Belfort? He's no longer injured and reportedly wants the fight. He can probably beat him if Silva messes around like the Maia fight. But please Dana, give the fans what they want!

Don't fire him just yet? First feed him to GSP and let GSP show the world who the better fighter is. I know Silva doesn't necessarily deserve to fight GSP, but let's face it, no one currently in the middleweight division is good enough to beat him. I'd put Bisping ahead of Sonnen in the running. But the question is, why not give the next shot to Belfort? He's no longer injured and reportedly wants the fight. He can probably beat him if Silva messes around like the Maia fight. But please Dana, give the fans what they want!

Vitor would have been a good fight as well. But let's face it.. Silva's camp has been very vocal about how they felt regarding a Vitor fight and when it comes to promoting the fight, who better to promote a fight than Sonnen. He's already got anticipation building for this fight due to their ongoing fued, which personally I believe every word Sonnen says. Sonnen knows how to promote himself and since the Mardquart fight, he's shown that he has skills to grind people out. Nate is a big boy, and Sonnen manhandled him. Can't wait for this fight. However I will not be supporting another Silva fight with a ppv buy.

I'm looking forward to seeing Chael defeat Silva. By KO if possible. But a decision after a 5 round beating is fine too.

It's a win-win for the fans. If Silva doesn't step up, we get a new champion who will. If Silva steps up, it will be an awesome fight. :cool:

whatever you are on, i want some...

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

He's turned into more of a cocky showboater than a fighter.

Watch his fight with Demian Maia.

While I in no way excuse what he did in that fight, try and look at it realistically. Maia was volumes back skillwise compared to Anderson. Vitor was due to fight Anderson at 112, but had an injury. Chael is just another can tossed on the heap here waiting for the Belfort fight.

Belfort is now healed though, so why still give him Sonnen?

I believe this fight was set up while Belfort was still healing. I had seen an interview where they talked to Vitor and he mentioned something like that, I'll try to find it again.

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