Brian Stann is no stranger to Chael Sonnen’s fighting skills. The Marine and American hero was thoroughly dismantled by Sonnen at UFC 136 in one of the best performances of Sonnen’s career.
So when Stann makes a prediction for Sonnen’s second crack at middleweight kingpin Anderson Silva—a bout that headlines a soccer stadium show in Rio de Janeiro this summer—we should probably sit back and listen. Stann appeared on UFC Tonight last night to give his thoughts on the bout:
I think that Chael Sonnen takes it. There are a lot of factors that are going to play into that. Just similar to when I fought Chael, I think he’s particularly a very, very difficult match up for Anderson Silva. Just due to the years and years of difference in grappling and how physical Chael is when he’s on top. We’re going to have to see some new techniques from Anderson that he wasn’t able to showcase in his first fight. But, if Chael performs the way he did against Bisping, he could be in for a long night against Anderson.
There are many people in the industry who feel the same way Stann does, including my colleague Jonathan Snowden.
Me? I’m not sure what I think.
I do believe that Sonnen has the best chance of any middleweight in the world to beat Silva. He has the tools and the mindset to go in and take the fight to Silva. He’s not afraid of Silva’s mystique like so many opponents “The Spider” has faced during his UFC tenure. He’s proven that he can go in the cage and take the fight to Silva for well over 20 minutes. That’s a special thing.
But like Stann said in the quote above, it’s going to depend on which version of Chael shows up. If the Sonnen from the first Silva fight and the Stann massacre shows up, Silva could very well lose his title this summer. But if Sonnen performs the way he did against Bisping? I’d wager even Sonnen himself wouldn’t give himself much of a chance of winning the belt.
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