Chael Sonnen was never the shy and retiring type

Chael Sonnen signs new contract and will drop to middleweight after fight against Shogun

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

The UFC has confirmed Chael Sonnen has signed a new deal, the deal will coincide with his return to the middleweight division.

Sonnen confirmed a 5 fight deal which will kick in after his August 17 fight with Shogun Rua which headlines the first UFC on Fox Sports 1 event. Sonnen also told of a move in his training camp to help with the drop back to middleweight. He has moved to California to train at Mark Munuz's 'Reign'.

With the former Middleweight and Light Heavyweight contender known to talk his way into several huge fights there is no shortage of opponents for him. Vitor Belfort is stuck in a bit of a no mans land at the minute and has asked for the fight at the massive end of year ppv on Dec 28th.

Wanderlei Silva is another possible opponent. First and foremost though Sonnen has to deal with a very tough opponent in Shogun Rua who certainly can't be taken lightly.

What has Chael Sonnen got on the UFC?

My thoughts on Chael Sonnen getting to headline UFC on Fox Sports 1

by John Haigh @JohnBJayHaigh

When Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, had to drop out of the fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 161 due to back problems Chael Sonnen offered his services straight away.

Shogun immediately accepted, but the fight isn’t going to happen at UFC 161 on June 15th in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It will instead be the headlining bout at UFC on FS1 1 on Aug 17th in Boston.
Sonnen announced the bout on Tuesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight.

“Shogun and I are going to be the main event on FOX Sports 1 on Aug. 17. We were going to fight in Winnipeg, and they pulled it,” Sonnen proclaimed before getting his digs in at his original target, Wanderlei Silva.

“I like Shogun. I admire him a lot,” he continued. “I wanted to fight Wanderlei. He’s the worst fighter in the UFC. I couldn’t get him. I figured I’d get the guy who destroyed Wanderlei in the practice room for all these years.”

So why does Sonnen keep getting these big fights?
Sure he can sell a fight with his endless ramblings and trash talking but surely there’s someone actually deserving of a bout with a top 10 ranked fighter? Maybe the current 10th placed fighter Ryan Bader?
In my eyes Sonnen has only won one of his last five fights and that was against Brian Stann in 2011. It might say win from the Bisping fight but everyone who has seen the fight says Bisping won two rounds including UFC President Dana White.

So in my opinion I really can’t see why they keep giving him these fights he clearly doesn’t deserve them.

As for Sonnen saying “I wanted to fight Wanderlei. He’s the worst fighter in the UFC.” Silva has had more fights then Sonnen and lost less than Sonnen. Surely “The worst fighter in the UFC” title is a title that Sonnen could actually win.

Wanderlei Silva accepts Chael Sonnen fight

Could we really see a Wanderlei Silva vs Chael Sonnen fight

by Jack Broadey @J3cK_b

There has been a longtime rivalry between Chael Sonnen and Wandelei Silva building. However now a fight between them looks to be one step closer to happening as Silva has accepted Sonnen's verbal challenge to him.

Silva has stated he would be willing to fight Sonnen on one of the UFCs upcoming Brazilian cards or at the end of year big show the UFC likes to put on in Vegas. Silva did not state what weight the fight would take place at but it's expected that the fight would be at light Heavyweight. Sonnen now considers himself a Light Heavyweight and Silva's last fight was also at 205 pounds with Brian Stann.

Sonnen had previously stated his desire for the Silva fight believing it would be an easy win against a broken man. Silva was not shy in his response going as far as saying he didn't want to fight Sonnen he wanted to "hurt him." Fighting talk from both men.

The fight looked like it was going to fail to materialise at one point as Sonnen originally had retracted his challenge as Silva had not replied in time to him. With it looking like Silva has now accepted the challenge the fight looks like it could well be on again.

Gustafsson officially out, replaced by training partner Ilir Latifi

Relative unknown fighter Ilir Latifi to make UFC debut and may headline UFC on FUEL TV 9

by Ben Heather @benheather

On Monday Wanderlei Silva got fans excited and said that he would be happy to step up and fight Mousasi if Gustafsson was ruled out before revealing that this was infact an April Fools joke.

Then earlier on Tuesday news broke that the Swedish MMA Federation had ruled that Alexander Gustafsson (15-1 MMA 7-1 UFC) had not been cleared to fight this weekend. The facial cut which Gustafsson suffered in training a couple of days ago had been ruled too severe to fight with this weekend and so his fight with Gegard Mousasi (33-3-2 MMA) was off.

This left the UFC in a tricky position with only four days left until the show how would they fill the space.

Would Mousasi still fight on the card?

What will the main event now be for the show?

and could anybody fill the giant hole left by Gustafsson?

 Dana White broke his silence and put an end to speculation of the past few days with the answer to the question that every MMA fan in the world has been asking for the past few days... What is going to happen to the main event of UFC on Fuel Tv 9. If you predicted the outcome you are either we now have you are either a) A genius, b) Dana White or c) Ilir Latifi as I dont know of anyone who could have predicted the news that Dana White broke late on Tuesday evening.

The new fight for Mousasi at UFC on FUEL TV 9 see's Gegard Mousasi face Ilir Latifi (7-2 MMA) who happens to be Alexander Gustafsson's training partner. For those who had not heard of Latifi before and there may be a few of you he is a 5ft 8" 29 year old fighter who will be making his UFC debut this weekend. He will make his way in to the octagon coming off the back of a 3 fight winning streak with his only two losses coming against current Bellator fighter Emanuel Newton and Tatsuya Mizuno.

The new match up may result in one of the most one sided odds matchups the UFC has ever seen but for now nothing has been announced.

As yet UFC have announced no news as to whether this fight will still be the main event of the night, keep checking KingdomMMA.co.uk for further news on this card.

Tom Watson: 'Yo, Wanderlei, I Will knock you the F**k Out'

UK star Tom Watson Calls out Pride Legend.

Less than 24 after Wanderlei Silva's emphatic 2nd round TKO victory in Japan, Watson took to twitter to call out the former pride champion:

Yo @wandfc, stay on your supplements at 205, or come back to 185 and get knocked the fuck out. You decide? Obrigado @ufc & @danawhite.
— Tom Kong Watson (@TomKongWatson) March 3, 2013

While a fight with Watson makes little sense for Silva, Watson does have pulling power in the UK and is riding high following his TKO victory of Stanislav Nedkov and at this stage in his career is Silva prepared to back down for a challenge?

All we know is this fight has co-main event in the UK written all over it!

Let us know what you think on Twitter - @kingdommma