Chael Sonnen Doesn’t Think Anderson Silva Will Fight Again
Former UFC title contender Chael Sonnen doesn’t believe his old rival will be able to find a new home outside of the UFC.
Sonnen’s feud with Anderson Silva started back in 2010. The lead-up to their first fight at UFC 117 is what cemented Sonnen’s heel persona amongst MMA fans. The American dominated his Brazilian counterpart over the first four rounds before submitting to a triangle choke in the fifth. The rematch two years later at UFC 148 proved far less competitive, as Silva cruised his way to a second-round stoppage.
Despite the harsh words shared between the two during their rivalry, both men decided to let bygones be bygones after the second fight and the fighters have been friendly ever since. In an interview with James Lynch at FanaticsView, Sonnen gave his thoughts on what Silva’s fighting future holds.
Silva’s headlining fight against Uriah Hall at UFC Vegas 12 was largely billed as his last fight. Despite that, after being knocked-out in the fourth-round, Silva insisted that his career would continue. UFC president Dana White was adamant that he never wanted to see Silva fight again, and let the UFC legend out of his contract. In the following weeks, many of the world’s top MMA organizations – such as Bellator, PFL, and ONE FC – have come out to say they also have no interest in letting Silva compete for them. Even the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has opted out of signing him. Sonnen thinks that is in large part because of the way Silva handled things.
“No, I don’t think we’ll see him fight again because I think those promotions are telling the truth,” Sonnen said. “And I think there’s a much better way of going about it than the way that he went about it. I don’t think you should come out and just offer your services somewhere. I think that you should have a finished product. He should have found a very specific opponent, taken it to the audience first, to make sure the audience wanted it, then added some flames to it, and then dropped it.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)
Sonnen believes that Silva should have hyped up a fight, drawn the interest of the fans and essentially forced an organization to put the fight together. With so many organizations dropping out, Silva is running out of possible fights and time.
It’s unlikely he is willing to take a massive pay cut, and the only organizations left that could likely afford his services are RIZIN FF and KSW. RIZIN seems doubtful given their close ties to Bellator, and KSW has a number of their own stars they seem content on building.
Do you agree with Chael Sonnen’s assessment? Will we ever see Anderson Silva fight again?
