Bait And Switch! Silva Faces Sonnen In ‘Grand Finale’

Terry Crews is out (if he was ever really in), and Chael Sonnen will face Anderson Silva in what is being promoted as his final fight.

Forget Terry Crews. Anderson Silva will be boxing old UFC rival Chael Sonnen on June 15th.

Sunday was a strange day for “Spider” fans who witnessed a strange whiplash of fight announcements and fight cancellations. At first, Crews and Silva both seemed set on boxing each other at an event in Brazil, only for the whole thing to suddenly change in what may have been a promotional hype job to catch our attention.

Now stepping into Crews’ place is Silva’s ‘real opponent’ Chael Sonnen.

The news was announced by both Silva and Sonnen on social media.

“Anderson, I’ll see you June 15th,” Sonnen wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

“Anderson Silva’s real opponent in his grand finale at Spaten Fight Night: Chael Sonnen!” promotion Spaten Fight Night posted on Instagram. “We are ready for this historic duel, are you?”

Chael Sonnen has never boxed, so we’re not so sure we would describe what’s coming as a ‘historic duel.’ But the two have a long history, with Chael s— talking his way into a title shot back in August 2010 that he nearly won via decision. Anderson pulled out the win with a triangle in the final moments of the fight.

A second less competitive fight between the two went down in 2012, with Silva winning via TKO in round two. And we imagine the third will be equally as uncompetitive given Silva’s extensive boxing training and fights versus Chael’s complete lack of experience.

Anderson Silva retired from MMA in 2020 but has gone on to fight four times in boxing, building a 2-1-1 record. His last fight was a decision loss to Jake Paul in 2022. Chael Sonnen hasn’t competed since 2019, where he closed out his MMA career in Bellator.