TUF Brazil Season 3 coaches Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva will now settle their differences at a UFC Fight Night event in Brazil on May 31st.
The fight had recently been scheduled for a co-main event spot on the UFC 173: Weidman Vs Belfort card in Las Vegas a week earlier, but they’ve since had a change of heart.
That’s likely due to the fact that the fight they originally had planned for the ‘Fight Night’ card, which would have seen Junior Dos Santos take on Alistair Overeem, fell through when Overeem turned down the bout citing a rib injury.
There’s a considerable amount of buzz surrounding Sonnen and Silva’s fight due to a long history of bad blood between the two that is believed to have lead to an actual physical altercation during the filming of the latest season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ reality show in Brazil.
Sonnen heads into the fight with just one win in four Octagon outings, though in fairness his losses came against top flight competition in two separate title fights at middleweight with Anderson Silva and light-heavyweight against Jon Jones, with a further defeat coming to former 205lb title holder Rashad Evans.
In between times he showed he’s still got what it takes to not only compete against the best, but also emerge victorious when he submitted Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in the summer of last year in an event to celebrate the launch of FOX Sports 1.
Meanwhile, Silva’s recent record has been patchy too, going 2-2 in his last four fights with His defeats coming by way of a quick KO against Chris Leben in 2011 and a second decision loss to Rich Franklin in 2012.
Despite all the wars he’s been in over the years Silva has proven he’s still got some of his old magic by earning a hard fought TKO win over Cung Le in 2011 and most recently knocking out Brian Stann in a classic encounter in Japan last year.
