New Chael Sonnen TUF Brazil 3 Interview

Cung Le Interested in Silva Rematch

Former Strikeforce Middleweight Champion, Cung Le has been a very busy man over the last few months as he was playing the role of Dana White during the shooting of the Ultimate Fighter China.  Though he has been a busy man, he has kept up with the events going on in Las Vegas in regards to TRT.  Le has stated that he wouldn't mind stepping in against Wanderlei Silva if Chael Sonnen needed to pull out due to the new TRT ban in the UFC.  Cung Le and Wanderlei Silva first met at UFC 139 in 2011.  Le was winning the stand up war until Silva caught him and earned the second round TKO.  Le felt that he didn't put out his best work in that fight and would like a second chance to prove himself against Wanderlei Silva.

It has been nearly a year and a half since we have last seen Cung Le in action and that is sad considering the talent level that Cung Le is at.  He is definitely one of the most elite strikers in MMA.  Cung Le is now in that phase of his career in which he knows that he isn't going to be fighting for a championship again and all of his fights would purely be for entertainment purposes only.  I wouldn't mind seeing the two of them compete again.  Both men are on the final stretch of their careers and have nothing left to prove as they are both former champions of premier organizations.The match would be an easy sell for a UFC Fight Night Event like the rematch between Shogun Rua and Dan Henderson later this month.

UFC 173 Update: Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva Rescheduled

Only a few days ago, the UFC announced that the grudge match between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen would be co-headlining UFC 173 in Las Vegas.  Now it has been announced that the UFC will be moving that match to be the main event of a Fox Sports 1 card on May 31st, a week after UFC 173.  The card will act as the Finale for TUF Brazil 3, which both men are coaches to the all Brazilian cast.  According to Dana White, the two coaches have already come to blows while filming the show in Brazil.

UFC 170: Rashad Evans Out of Cormier Fight Due to Injury

Fox  Sports Analyst and former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Rashad Evans has fallen to injury this week and will not be able to compete in a contest with Daniel Cormier next weekend at UFC 170. The UFC has decided to do away with the bout for now. It is rumored that the UFC may possibly be targeting the bout for UFC 172 if Evans is healthy.

In the meantime, Daniel Cormier has took to Twitter to ask for possible replacement opponents calling out Chael Sonnen and Anthony "Rumble" Johnson.  He has also asked to maybe take a fight at heavyweight. Both men already have opponents in the next few months, but Sonnen replied saying that he was up for filling in for Evans. It is unlikely that the UFC will book a replacement opponent on such short notice with UFC 170 right around the corner, a little over a week away.

Sonnen/W. Silva to Be Paired With Weidman/Belfort

UFC President, Dana White, has expressed an interest in having the Light Heavyweight bout between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen be placed on the same card as the UFC Middleweight Championship fight between Chris Weidman and Vitor Belfort.  The date is not final for that bout, but the fight is scheduled to occur in Las Vegas sometime in May or Fourth of July weekend.  Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva have been exchanging words with each other for the last year or so and they will finally get to back up all of their talk in the cage.  The two men have already come to blows while filming TUF Brazil 3.

Who wins Sonnen vs. W. Silva?--Tough Spar MMA

Chael Sonnen

Wanderlei Silva

Poll Maker

UFC 167 Recap w/ Prediction Results

Last night was  a very entertaining night of fights that ended with a very controversial split decision win for the UFC Welterweight title.

We will begin with the headlining fight of the prelims. Donald Cerrone who was on a two-fight losing streak coming into his fight with Evan Dunham and he desperately needed a win last night and he got it.  He was able to out-strike and out-grapple Dunham and eventually finish him on the ground with a beautiful triangle choke in the second round.  The question now becomes what should Donald Cerrone do now after his win?  Should he continue to fight at 155 or should he make the move to 145 as he had stated he would do win, lose or draw?

The first fight on the main card was a fast-paced fight between Tim Elliot and Ali Bagautinov. It was an interesting fight in which both men participated in excellent striking exchanges which involved Tim Elliot landing more volumes of strikes and Bagautinov landing the more devastating strikes.  It was a match in which I had Bagautinov winning rounds 1 ad 3, but felt the fight could go either way depending on what the judges saw was more important, volume or clean, power strikes. In that fight the judges chose accurate, clean, power strikes.  The question for this match up would be how many wins would Bagautinov be away from a title fight and who will he face next?

The next fight was the first of three fights at 170 lbs on the main card. Tyron Woodley faced Josh Koscheck in a match that ended in the first round by way of TKO.  Koscheck hurt Woodley early in the round with a straight right hand that made Woodley begin to step backwards, but Woodley survived that and some impressive grappling from Koscheck in order to rock Koscheck with a right hand and send him flat on his back.  The question I have is how would Woodley perform is he is given a top ten opponent for his next fight?

After that match was GSP's training partner, Rory MacDonald taking on Robbie Lawler in the second welterweight fight of the main card.  After promising to be more exciting than his last fight, we saw MacDonald do exactly the same thing he did in his last fight, which was boring us to death.  Robbie Lawler won a split decision after he out-struck MacDonald and kept pressure on him the entire fight.  There were moments when MacDonald did get the better of Lawler, but those moments were few and very short.  What will happen to Rory MacDonald after putting out two terrible performances?  Also will this win put Lawler in the top 5 in the UFC's Welterweight Division? Also who will Robbie Lawler face next?

The co-main event of the evening included a bout between friends and coworkers, Rashad Evans and Chael Sonnen.  It was a match up in which Rashad quickly put away Chael Sonnen on the ground due to strikes.  Who will the UFC put against Evans who has recovered from his two-fight winning streak?  Does Evans still have the ability to become the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship again?

In the main event we saw a very close match in which we could have seen either man get their hand raised at the end of the fight, but Georges St-Pierre retained his title by split decision.  The fight was too close to call, but (contrary to popular belief) I did score the fight for the champ giving him rounds 1,3 and 5.  There is also controversy as to whether or not Johny Hendricks tapped out to a submission in the first round of the fight.  Video below:

I think that it is obvious to see that Hendricks didn't tap, but many people are entertaining this notion of GSP having a submission ignored.  After the fight St-Pierre hinted at possibly needing some time away to deal with some things in his personal life.  Dana White had a conversation with the champ and says that GSP will overcome his personal issues and will not be retiring.  He also stated that GSP owes Hendricks a rematch they look forward to putting that together.

Below is a prediction on how I felt that the event would play out and the actual results that occured:

Also be sure to vote for who you believed was the true winner of the main event last night at: UFC 167 Main Event Poll

UFC 167 Results

Main Card:

Georges St-Pierre def. Johny Hendricks via split decision
Rashad Evans def. Chael Sonnen via first-round TKO
Robbie Lawler def. Rory MacDonald via split decision
Tyron Woodley def. Josh Koscheck via first-round KO
Ali Bagautinov def. Tim Elliott via unanimous decision

Preliminary Card:

Donald Cerrone def. Evan Dunham via submission (triangle choke)
Thales Leites def. Ed Herman via unanimous decision
Rick Story def. Brian Ebersole via unanimous decision
Erik Perez def. Edwin Figueroa via unanimous decision
Jason High def. Anthony Lapsley via unanimous decision
Sergio Pettis def. Will Campuzano via unanimous decision
Gian Villante def. Cody Donovan via second-round TKO

UFC 167 Weigh in Results

Main Card:

Georges St-Pierre (170) vs. Johny Hendricks (170)
Rashad Evans (205) vs. Chael Sonnen (206)
Robbie Lawler (170) vs. Rory MacDonald (171)
Josh Koscheck (170) vs. Tyron Woodley (171)
Ali Bagautinov (126) vs. Tim Elliott (125)

Preliminary Card:

Evan Dunham (156) vs. Donald Cerrone (155)
Ed Herman (186) vs. Thales Leites (186)
Brian Ebersole (171) vs. Rick Story (170)
Edwin Figueroa (135) vs. Erik Perez (135)
Jason High (170) vs. Anthony Lapsley (170)
Sergio Pettis (135) vs. Will Campuzano (135)
Cody Donovan (205) vs. Gian Villante (205)

Sonnen Interview

UFC 167 Co-Main Event added--Sonnen vs. Evans.

It has been made official that the UFC and Dana White have put together Top Ten competitor in the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight Contender, Chael Sonnen and Former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Rashad Evans in as the Co-Main Event at UFC 167.  This fight has been rumored and talked about for a little while and now it officially joins the UFC's 20th Anniversary Show in Vegas.

Both men are amazing wrestlers who can use their wrestling as an offensive attack as well as takedown defense.  It will be interesting to see who will get the better of the wrestling if this match becomes a grappling war.  I believe that Rashad Evans has the better striking between the two of the fighters. One thing that Chael has that could be a major factor in this fight is the ability to pressure his opponents during fights.  It's too soon to try and even guess who will be the winner of this bout, but it has the potential to be an awesome fight.

This fight joins UFC 167 which is being headlined by Georges St. Pierre defending his title against top contender Johnny Hendricks.  Fights also on the card are Robbie Lawlor vs. Rory MacDonald and Tyron Woodley vs. Josh Koscheck.  This is shaping up to be yet another stacked card for the UFC.  Let's pray that injuries do not ruin this amazing card.

Chael and Kenny's UFN 27 Predictions

Kenny Florian and Chael Sonnen weigh in on the coming UFC Event this Wednesday.

Lyoto Opens Up About Fights He Wants

After a cocontroversial loss to Phil Davis, Lyoto Machida has decided upon fights that he wanted to take. It had been earlier reported that UFC matchmaker, Joe Silva, had wanted to put on a fight between Lyoto Machida and Nick Diaz. After this Saturday's Fox Sports 1 event, Dana White killed the noise on that one stating that that fight will not be happening.  Machida has come out stating that he would like fights with Chael Sonnen as well as Vitor Belfort.

Though I find that both of these fights would be amazing for fight fans I am most interested in seeing Lyoto facing the newly reinvigorated Chael Sonnen.

I think that Chael Sonnen prevents a high pressure fight game that proved to be deadly to most of his opponents including Machida's teammate and former UFC Middleweight Champion, Anderson Silva, in their first fight.  I think that Chael will not give Machida the opportunity to do his ususal dancing around the cage. I see a potential Machida/Sonnen fight would look much like Silva/Sonnen I with the exception of Machida not having an injury going into his fight so it will be more competitive. Dont get me wrong I still think that Machida could win this fight if he can pressure Sonnen before Sonnen can pressure him (see UFC 159 Jones vs. Sonnen.) The only thing that could prevent this , atch from happening would be Sonnen's desire to square off with Wanderlei Silva.

In the case of Belfort vs. Machida I think that it would be a fight that Machida could win a little easier than fighting Sonnen. It would be a great fight to promote in Brazil. Belfort is on a tear in the Middleweight division and feels that he is entitled to a title fight and is turning down all non title dights at middleweight. Perhaps the UFC can put together a catchweight fight at 195 so then it could happen without Belfort being worried about his stature in the 185 lb category.

A Chael Sonnen Interview is Never Dull

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs68YQN9hq0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My Fight Predictions

Got the main event right but that was about it.  I didn't get to see the event but,  I knew Mauricio Rua was not going to pull it off tonight.

UFC Fight Night 26 Weigh-in Results

UFC Weigh-in Results

Main Card:
Chael Sonnen (205) vs. Shogun Rua (205)
Travis Browne (236) vs. Alistair Overeem (255.5)
Iuri Alcantara (136) vs. Urijah Faber (135.5)
Mike Pyle (170) vs. Matt Brown (171)
John Howard (185) vs. Uriah Hall (184)
Michael Johnson (156) vs. Joe Lauzon (155)

Preliminary Card:
Michael McDonald (135.5) vs. Brad Pickett (135.5)
Max Holloway (145) vs. Conor McGregor (146)
Steven Siler (145.5) vs. Mike Brown (145.5)
Daniel Pineda (144.5) vs. Diego Brandao (146)
Cole Miller (146) vs. Manny Gamburyan (145.5)
Cody Donovan (204) vs. Ovince St. Preux (205.5)
Ramsey Nijem (155) vs. James Vick (155)