Chael Sonnen’s wish has been granted – the UFC have lined up a fight between the outspoken wrestler and Wanderlei Silva to serve as the co-main event at UFC 167 in November.
However, Silva is currently suffering from an undisclosed injury so the bout will only go ahead if he gets healthy in time to have a full training camp.
Sonnen had been calling for the fight for some time and did so again after submitting Silva’s friend and countryman Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua by way of guillotine choke in the first round at ‘UFC On FOX Sports 1’ this past weekend.
Both fighters had already been plotting a move back down to middleweight after a stint at light-heavyweight so there’s a good chance that’s where the fight will take place, though nothing’s been decided yet.
Sonnen’s only other fight at 205lbs had been a first round defeat to current champion Jon Jones. He’d made the move up in weight after suffering a second defeat to the long-serving 185lb champ at the time Anderson Silva which appeared to end his title hopes in the division, but Chris Weidman’s shock victory against ‘The Spider’ has potentially opened a new route for Sonnen to reach the title.
Meanwhile Silva spent an even shorter amount of time at 205lbs, earning a hard-fought KO victory against Brian Stann earlier this year. It was an exciting brawl and a potential ‘Fight Of The Year’ candidate, but Silva himself was close to being stopped several times which may have prompted him to consider dropping back down in weight.
Bad blood has been present between Sonnen and Silva for some time now, originally stemming from Sonnen’s often derogatory comments about Brazil in the lead-up to his original fight with Anderson Silva.
Wanderlei took offense at his country being bad-mouthed and so during a video blog he warned Sonnen face-to-face that if he didn’t show respect then he might lose his teeth.
UFC 167 takes place on November 16th in Las Vegas and is headlined by a welterweight title fight between Georges St.Pierre and Johny Hendricks. Together with Sonnen Vs Silva in the co-main event slot and Rory MacDonald Vs Robbie Lawler also on the main card it’s already shaping up to be a very strong looking fight card.
