Long road finally led to Silva-Sonnen UFC rematch
When Anderson Silva defends the Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight title Saturday night in a rematch of his most challenging defense to date, it is expected to be the biggest fight of the year for the organization and perhaps its biggest ever.
But to hear the principals tell it, the bout – the main event of UFC 148 at the MGM Grand Garden – was in jeopardy of ever taking place.
In fact, the bout was not even finalized right up to the moment the fighters walked onstage for an April news conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Chael Sonnen had been working his way back toward another shot at the belt since he dominated Silva for nearly 23 minutes only to fall into a triangle choke in the closing minutes in a 2010 bout. In addition to winning subsequent fights, Sonnen continued to do his part to market the potential rematch with a slew of inflammatory interviews.
Reports indicated Silva would face Sonnen in Rio to headline the UFC’s first stadium show in June and Sonnen was going to fly to the country he has alienated with verbal attacks for much of the past two years for the announcement.
The picture started to get cloudy, though. Not only was Sonnen adamant that Silva had not accepted the fight, but logistical issues surfaced that made putting on a show in Rio on the desired weekend nearly impossible.
So, Sonnen got on a plane with UFC president Dana White and headed for Rio to announce the epic rematch instead would take place in Las Vegas in July.
Oh, yeah, and there was that other sticking point.
“When we did that press conference down in Brazil, Silva hadn’t agreed to the fight,” White said. “That fight wasn’t happening. I had them bring Anderson to the hotel, and we sat in a room for three hours arguing about the fight.”
Silva since has stated his belief that Sonnen is unworthy of a rematch because he has been so disrespectful of Silva and Brazil, pleaded guilty to a money-laundering charge and tested positive for elevated testosterone ratios after the first fight and failed to disclose his therapeutic use.
“Anybody but Chael,” White said of who Silva wanted to fight. “That press conference was delayed an hour because I was fighting with him in my room.”
White indicated he might have had to provide added incentive for Silva to eventually agree to the fight.
Sonnen confirmed all of those details but said he never doubted the fight would get done.
“It was going to get done. Nobody makes the decisions but Dana,” Sonnen said. “Some guys think they have it figured out, but he’s got it figured out. I traveled down there with him; I had the inside scoop. Just because the last one to the table was Anderson, we knew how it was going to go. Don’t forget, too: We go to a place to announce we’re not doing a fight in this place which had never been done before and highly likely won’t ever be done again.”
Silva says in the end he is paid to fight, not be a matchmaker.
“I’m here to fight whoever they put in front of me. I guess sometimes my opinion doesn’t make too much of a difference,” he said. “I don’t believe Chael deserves a rematch, but, hey, I’m an employee of the UFC, and if they say I have to go back in there and beat his ass 10 times, I’ll beat his ass 10 times.”
Now that everyone is on board, Sonnen says he is prepared to be one-half of the biggest fight in UFC history.
“People call this one of the biggest fights of the year; you better check the numbers. This is the biggest fight of all time,” Sonnen said. “You can bring up UFC 100, but you better say the biggest fight card. That was a great card, and as a fan I loved it, but this is the biggest fight to ever go down.
“There’s three things and only three things that can make a great fight. If you don’t have one of these three, you’re not going to have a great fight, historically: ethnicity, personal or nationality. We’ve got all three. All the ingredients are there. This is the fight. “
Sonnen shrugs off Silva’s contention he doesn’t deserve to get this second chance.
“As far as not deserving a rematch, I don’t get that talk. That’s ridiculous right there,” he said. “If I’m champion and you’re 185 pounds and say my name, I will give you a beating just like anyone else.”
In the end, White was confident the fight would come together. In fact, he believes if he was in charge of boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao would have fought by now.
“I would have made that fight happen, too,” he said with a knowing smile.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.
