Saying that three-time UFC title challenger Chael Sonnen believes Antonio Rogerio Nogueira faked an injury prior to a scheduled UFC 161 bout with Mauricio Rua would be an understatement.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, “The American Gangster” blasted his Brazilian adversary for withdrawing from a heavily anticipated rematch with “Shogun” roughly three weeks before the match up due to a back injury.
“Little Chicken Belly Nog pulled the same scumbag move that he does every time, lets the UFC put out posters, commercials, doing everything to promote him, knowing full well he’s not going to do the fight,” Sonnen said. “Once again he calls in sick, three weeks early. In no industry on earth can you do that. Nobody can call their boss and say ‘Hey, boss, 20 days from now, I’m not going to feel good’. So he calls in sick three weeks early… it was a ruse from the beginning, and basically, I just wanted to help out.”
Sonnen was willing to step up to the plate and fight Rua with less than two weeks notice, but instead, a showdown between Rua and Sonnen will headline UFC on FOX Sports 1: #1 this August (via MMA Fighting).
“Little Nog‘s” recent career has been plagued with injuries, not fighting at all in 2012 and only stepping inside the Octagon once in 2013 thus far.
Nevertheless, back-to-back wins over former divisional champions Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans have earned Nogueira the number 5 spot in the UFC’s official light heavyweight rankings.
While Rua is a former UFC titleholder in his own right, he is just 3-4 in his past seven fights, a far cry from his dominant 13-1 run under the PRIDE banner.
Sonnen has lost consecutive fights to Anderson Silva and Jon Jones, fighting for the UFC middleweight and light heavyweight titles, respectively, though he has notched a 7-1 record in his last eight non-title bouts.
Should Sonnen take out Shogun in Boston on August 17, would the fans be interested in seeing him settle the score with Nogueira in his next fight?
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com and contributes MMA videos to The Young Turks Sports Show.
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