Jon Jones, Georges St-Pierre and Junior Dos Santos––Uncle Chael is coming for you.
A few weeks out from his No. 1 contender’s bout with Mark Munoz, former UFC title contender Chael Sonnen sat down with Michael Landsberg on OTR to talk about the middleweight title picture and possibly going up in weight.
Since losing to Anderson Silva at UFC 117, Sonnen has been hell-bent on securing a rematch, but the opportunity has continued to elude him. Despite hordes of verbal jabs from Sonnen, Silva has yet to step up and accept the challenge.
Is the UFC middleweight champ “ducking,” or is he merely refusing to give in to Sonnen’s “disrespectful” demands?
Whatever the reasoning, it no longer matters to Sonnen, who has finally decided to move on from Silva and seek challenges elsewhere.
“The bottom line is, I’m done with the guy. He and I have no business. This guy is cold product man. He’s like Jerry Curls and Pepsi Clear. He’s yesterday’s news,” said Sonnen. “I destroyed this guy back when he was tough, and that was years ago. He’s so far over the hill and past his prime, it’s not worth talking about.
“I’m going to become the No. 1 contender on January 28, but despite what you think, I am not going to use that voucher to fight Anderson Silva. I’ll be looking at Dos Santos, Jones, and possibly St-Pierre. I will take that voucher to Dana White, and I will pick one of those three guys. My time with Anderson is done.”
Sonnen came within two minutes of earning a lopsided unanimous decision in the first bout, but Silva’s perseverance and late fight heroics enabled the proposed pound-for-pound kingpin to secure a triangle choke that sent the challenger packing.
Even though Sonnen tapped, he still doesn’t believe he lost the fight. To this day, he claims to be the true UFC middleweight champion.
“Undefeated and undisputed. You can either believe me or your lying eyes,” said Sonnen.
With Silva no longer in his crosshairs, Sonnen turns his attention towards light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, who could be the greatest talent the sport has ever seen.
“I’m going after a championship match,” stated Sonnen. “Anderson Silva is no more of a champion than the man on the moon and trying to pretend he is is a waste of my breath. Jon Jones is a real man that’ll accept challenges.”
If he chooses to move up in weight, Sonnen will be giving up a significant size advantage compared to what he enjoyed at 185-pounds. Jones is already a physical specimen at light heavyweight, but many believe he has the size to overtake the heavyweight division.
“I don’t get caught up in weight. When I became a fan of the sport was in the early 90’s, and we didn’t even have weight classes,” said Sonnen. “Everybody just kind of went out and competed with each other. I’ve never got caught up in weight. That’s something that was put in after I had already agreed, so whatever a guy weighs, I don’t pay attention to it.”
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