Chael Sonnen appears to have got a few facts wrong when it came to announcing on the UFC Tonight show on Wednesday night what was happening with his next fight at UFC 175 in July.
Here’s what he did get right: Wanderlei Silva is out, and the UFC have targeted Vitor Belfort as his replacement.
However, Sonnen was incorrect when he stated that the fight would be fought at 205lbs. According to Dana White yesterday it’ll actually be fought at 185lbs.
That makes sense since Sonnen had claimed that the winner would get the next title shot in the middleweight division.
But wait, not so fast. When asked if the fight would indeed grant the winner the next shot at the belt, White told MMAFighting.com, “for Vitor it is,” suggesting that the same incentive does not apply for Sonnen.
If that’s the case then the circumstances surrounding this fight are starting to make a whole lot more sense than they did before.
There is still one potential spanner in the works though. It turns out that Belfort hasn’t been granted a license by the Nevada State Athletic Commission yet, so there’s still that final hurdle to jump.
In the past Belfort has been granted a therapeutic Use Exemption to use Testosterone Replacement Therapy prior to his fights, but the rules have been changed by NSAC, so he’ll have to prove that he’s off the controversial treatment in order to be able to fight.
