Just when you thought the Anderson Silva Vs Chael Sonnen saga had come to an end after the champion’s latest win on Saturday night, along comes Sonnen’s coach demanding a rematch over what he calls an “injustice”.
“Obviously, there were minor infractions of grabbing shorts and greasing himself up,” coach Scott McQuarry told MMAJunkie today, “But the knee to the face … I’ve looked at it from numerous angles. I can see where it hit his face. It did slide down to his chest. But that should be considered a no-contest.
“What I’m looking for is a rematch.”
It’s a surprising statement as replays of the incident show that Silva’s knee clearly hit Sonnen in the chest. Moreover, Sonnen made it clear he had no issue with the strike when he was quizzed about it at the post-fight press conference.
“I don’t make those decisions and I hate those rules anyway,” Sonnen told the assembled media after his defeat. “I’m an old school guy … I don’t care about legal or illegal. I could see him, I could see it coming. That’s just the way it goes.”
Add to that the fact that Sonnen’s manager doesn’t know anything about requesting a rematch and the Nevada state Athletic Commission has made it clear that there’s essentially no chance that the referee’s ruling that it was a legal strike will be overturned, and it seems that McQuarry is on a hiding to nothing.
Nevertheless, McQuarry is adamant that this is an issue that shouldn’t be swept under the carpet.
“I want to expedite this. I’m normally pretty quiet about this type of stuff, but when you see an injustice to this extreme and there’s so much on the line, I feel compelled to say something. Where it goes, I don’t know. To me, best-case scenario is we would get ruled a no-contest and we could have a rematch.”
While McQuarry is busy trying to get Sonnen a third fight with Silva, we reported earlier today that another of his coaches, Neil Melanson believes that the fighter may now hang up his gloves.
If anything this all just suggests that no-one, not even those closest to the fighter, knows exactly what’s going to come next for one of the UFC’s most unique characters.
