For the better part of two years, Chael Sonnen had one mission in life—the absolute destruction and obliteration of UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
Unfortunately, Sonnen fell short in both of his attempts to take Silva’s title away from him, losing in the first bout by a late fifth round submission and being stopped by strikes in the second round of their rematch.
Sonnen has moved on since the fights with Silva, and now competes in the light heavyweight division while also spending much of his time behind the desk as an analyst for the UFC on Fox and Fuel TV.
On Tuesday night during a broadcast of UFC Tonight, Sonnen gave his most recent opinion on Silva’s upcoming fight against top middleweight contender Chris Weidman. Sonnen has never been shy when taking a dig at Silva, but when giving his unabashed opinion on the fight, he knows the champion is in for a tough matchup.
“You don’t have to look too far to see Chris Weidman has the exact skill set to beat Anderson Silva, and he’s also got it upstairs. He wants this fight,” Sonnen said. “He has a better top game, at least submission wise, than I do. I was able to have some success for several minutes with Anderson from that position.
“Weidman’s going to get on top, he needs this, he’s never tasted defeat.”
Weidman‘s wrestling background combined with his growing jiu-jitsu arsenal has him becoming quite the popular pick amongst fighters in the UFC. Stylistically, Weidman‘s best weapons appear to be the areas where Silva is the weakest.
It’s hard to ignore, however, that Silva is the best fighter the UFC and MMA have ever seen. He’s faced wrestlers and jiu-jitsu practitioners numerous times throughout his career, and continuously came out on top.
The general consensus across the MMA world is that Weidman could be the toughest test Silva has faced to date, and even Sonnen can’t deny what a win at UFC 162 would do for the middleweight king.
“Let’s also understand, if Anderson Silva wins this fight, the debate ends—he is the best fighter of all time,” Sonnen stated.
Sonnen has never bent much on his belief that Silva isn’t the greatest fighter in the world, but it appears he’s turned the corner knowing the champion has a truly tough fight in front of him on July 6 in Las Vegas.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
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