Chael Sonnen Wants Third Fight Against Anderson Silva
Chael Sonnen wants a third match against former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Sonnen said it doesn’t matter that Silva lost his belt to Chris Weidman at UFC 162, because he doesn’t always want to fight for a title. He said his goal is to compete against the best in the world.
“If Anderson beats Chris Weidman, they’ll go into a rubber match, but I want to fight Anderson either way, regardless of the title,” Sonnen said on the media conference call for UFC on Fox Sports 1.
“I don’t accept the outcome of either of those matches. We can fight; it doesn’t have to be for a belt. I don’t always chase titles around,” he added. “I wanted to fight Jon Jones. He just happened to have the title. I want to fight Anderson Silva whether he’s got the belt or not. I’d like to fight him right now.”
The first time Silva and Sonnen faced off in the Octagon was at UFC 117 on August 7, 2010. Leading up to the fight, Sonnen said he was going to force Silva into retirement. For the first four rounds, Sonnen led on the judges’ scorecards. But at 3:10 in the fifth and final round, Silva caught Sonnen in a triangle armbar, causing him to tap out.
The two fought again almost two years later at UFC 148 on July 7, 2012. Sonnen took Silva down early on in the first round, landing 76 significant strikes from the top position after getting in a full mount. But, again, Silva bounced back, stopping Sonnen with a knee strike and punches for a TKO at 1:55 in the second round.
After seven years at the top of the middleweight division, Silva was defeated by Weidman by KO at 1:18 in the second round on July 6. The 29-year-old “All American” took over the #1 middleweight ranking, and Silva dropped to second. He is still considered the best pound-for-pound MMA fighter in the world by many publications.
After the second loss to Silva, Sonnen moved to the light heavyweight division to face champion Jon Jones at UFC 159. The match didn’t last long, with Jones scoring a TKO victory at 4:33 in the first round.
Sonnen now has another light heavyweight match in front of him against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC Fight Night 26 (also known as UFC on Fox Sports 1) Saturday. UFC president Dana White said that, while a third match between Sonnen and Silva probably won’t happen for awhile, he wasn’t ruling it out entirely.
“Well, not in the near future. I mean, even if Chael beats Shogun, he goes back down to 185,” White said. “Still, we got Vitor Belfort, you know. There’s other guys that are in line right now for that shot.”
Do you think Chael Sonnen should fight Anderson SIlva for a third time?
