(“And sometimes, professionals decline the fight altogether because of personal reasons.”)
At this point, you’re probably sick of hearing whether or not Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva is actually going to happen. For weeks/possibly months now, the “biggest rivalry in the *history* of MMA” has been booked and shuffled between events, only to be placed on hold due to Silva’s refusal to sign a bout agreement (possibly because he didn’t have his video crew around to angrily vlog about it afterward). Our frustration with Silva has only been matched by Sonnen, who has recently taken to threatening Silva with the release of some incriminating evidence (more incriminating than this?) over Twitter should he not sign the bout agreement by March 31st.
But thank f*cking God, Sonnen vs. Silva is finally a go. Probably. That’s according to MMAFighting, at least, who was the first to pass along word that the TUF Brazil 3 coaches have finally agreed to do battle in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 31st at an unnumbered “Fight Night” event.
The announcement was made by UFC officials on Sunday night. While there are a few members of the MMA media claiming that Wanderlei has still yet to sign on the dotted line (it wouldn’t be the first time that the UFC has put the cart before the horse if this turned out to be true), the “Fight Night” card is already starting to fill up with supporting fights.
Following up on the Silva-Sonnen announcement, UFC officials also announced that a do-or-die welterweight fight between Paulo Thiago and Gasan Umalatov has been booked for the May 31st card as well. CONTAIN YOUR EXCITEMENT.
It pains me to say that Thiago is one of those fighters who has never quite lived up to the hype created by his brilliant UFC debut victory over Josh Koscheck (and subsequent destruction of Mike Swick). The real-life action movie character has dropped five of his past seven contests including a most recent first round submission via strikes to rising prospect Brandon Thatch, and is all but guaranteed a pink slip if he isn’t able to secure a victory over Umalatov. As a big fan of anyone who knocks out Josh Koscheck, I pray that Thiago is able to find his rhythm and stick around the UFC for a couple more years.
Umalatov, on the other hand, also doesn’t have a Wikipedia page. Using the awesome power of the Internet, I was able to discover that the Russian dropped a decision to Neil Magny in his UFC debut at UFC 169. The only question that remains now is whether or not this fight will be granted co-main event status. My vote: A resounding “Yes.”