Heading into his fight against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Chael Sonnen had lost two fights in a row and was in danger of becoming irrelevant in the UFC. Many wondered if Sonnen‘s career was coming to an end.
After The American Gangster owned Shogun on Saturday night, however, it’s clear the feisty trash-talker still has the bite to back up his bark.
Sonnen was the aggressor early, taking Rua to the mat in the fight’s early moments.
Proving he wasn’t afraid of the black-belt jiu-jitsu star, he forced the action on the ground, concluding with a gorgeous guillotine choke that forced Rua to tap out, as noted by the UFC:
At the conclusion of the fight, he then wasted no time riling up his fans and detractors alike with a post-match speech right out of the WWE playbook, as shown by UFCONFOX:
While Rua isn’t as potent a fighter as he once was, Sonnen‘s dominant victory clearly illustrated his exceptional ground game, as well as his fierce desire to remain as one of UFC’s most bankable stars.
By no means would a loss have dictated a course of action that would have removed Sonnen from the UFC, but it would have inevitably led to a discussion about his worth as a headliner.
None of that makes any difference now, however.
Displaying a flair for the dramatic, his first-round submission reminded us of what kind of sensational fighter he is.
Sonnen will undoubtedly get another shot at a big fight sometime in the near future, and if he can produce an effort to match Saturday night’s, he’ll likely get another shot at a title fight, given his star power.
Love him or hate him, Sonnen isn’t going anywhere.
He’ll be a fixture on the UFC’s fight schedule until he’s no longer capable of backing up his bravado with show-stopping performances like the one we saw on Saturday night.
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