Chael Sonnen Gets His Wish With Another Crack at Anderson Silva

Added on Aug 27, 2010 by Bill Jackson in

UFC & MMA

At UFC 117, challenger Chael Sonnen gave champion Anderson Silva all he could handle for four and a half rounds of their five round middleweight championship fight. With just two minutes left in the fight, Silva latched on a triangle choke and forced Sonnen to submit. It will go down in the history books as one of the best come from behind wins in the sports history.

For Sonnen, it was a heartbreaking defeat, but still a performance that earned him a solid No. 2 spot in the rankings. And if there is one thing the UFC claims to do, it is put the top two guys together on a regular basis.

That is likely there reasoning for announcing their plans for an immediate rematch between the two middleweights. In the past, there has been only a handful of immediate rematches in the UFC and they were all due to close and debatable judges decisions. This will be the first immediate rematch in which the first fight ended decisively.

The bout is penciled in for winter, either landing on their New Year’s Eve card, or Super bowl weekend.

There was some speculation that Vitor Belfort may get a shot at the title before Sonnen got a rematch, but Belfort announced earlier this week that he will be fighting in November and his opponent would not be Silva or Sonnen.