When Chael Sonnen beat Brian Stann at UFC 136, Dana White, the president of the UFC, probably had dollar signs in his eyes. After all, a rematch between Chael Sonnen and middleweight champion Anderson Silva was perhaps the biggest fight that could be made.
It would mean a lot of pay-per-view buys.
Back at UFC 117, Sonnen had beaten the company’s most invincible champion for four and a half rounds before finally getting caught with a triangle armbar and having to tap out in the fifth and final round. Even fans wanted to see a rematch and White wanted to give it to them.
Then Sonnen got busted for having elevated testosterone levels. Plans for a rematch were dismissed until Sonnen served his sentence and after doing so, he was finally cleared to fight Silva.
Now Silva will have to sit out half of 2012 because of injuries. Unfortunately for White and the UFC, Sonnen isn’t the type to sit around and wait for Silva to get better, so he decided to take a fight in the interim which has him clashing with Mark Munoz in UFC on Fox 2.
White may act like it doesn’t matter if Sonnen wins his next match, but even he has to hope that his cash cow gets through this fight.
That isn’t going to happen if Munoz has his way, and in the end, he will. Sonnen may be one of the best wrestlers in the UFC, but Munoz is a more complete fighter and for all of Sonnen’s bluster a hungrier fighter, too. He also has had the ability to learn at a higher pace than Sonnen in his young career.
The shocking thing is that Munoz and Sonnen are actually close to the same age. In fact, Sonnen is only one year older than Munoz at 34, but it looks like there is a decade between them.
Part of it is the amount of fights they have been in. Sonnen has fought all over the world and had plenty more fights under his belt with quite a few being defeats.
Sonnen turned pro in 1997, though it wasn’t until 2002 when he started really competing, but he also competed multiple times a year. More than most fighters, actually.
This helped push him forward in front of MMA fans and kept him active, but it also had a drawback.
It made it hard for Sonnen to take a step back and assess his losses and how he could get better. He was so busy preparing for his next fight that he didn’t have time to fill the holes in his game. It is part of the reason why he is still open to submissions whenever he fights.
In contrast, Munoz has had far fewer fights, but they have been at the top level as most of his career has been spent in the WEC and the UFC. Not only has Munoz fought the best opposition out there, but he has had time to step away to assess his problems in the cage. It has turned him from a wrestler into the adapting fighter fans see today.
It is what will help him find the openings in Sonnen’s game and exploit them. It is also what will finally get him a crack at the title and leave Sonnen and White both heartbroken.
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