UFC president Dana White has guaranteed that Anderson Silva will lock horns with Chael Sonnen in the summer, providing the latter wins his match with British fighter Michael “The Count” Bisping.
“I 100 percent guarantee you, if Chael Sonnen wins this fight, Anderson Silva will fight Sonnen this summer,” White told ESPN.
That match is scheduled to take place at UFC on Fox 2 later this month, with the winner assured first refusal at the middleweight title and “The Spider.”
Sonnen’s original opponent for that co-main event, Mark Munoz, was pulled from the bout due to an injury suffered whilst training.
With that said, the ex-realtor has all but given up hope of a projected rematch with the 185-pound kingpin and told MMA Junkie in as many words.
“I can guarantee you – Anderson Silva and I will never cross paths again,” Sonnen said.
“I know Anderson’s not going to fight. The folks at the UFC know he’s not going to fight. I’m all for promoting and marketing and all that good stuff. I don’t want to throw water on a perfectly hot flame, but Anderson Silva’s not going to fight anybody.”
“I can tell you that behind the scenes, they tried to put me and Anderson together four times, and four times he said no,” he said.
[…] “Anderson Silva is not going to fight me. I don’t believe he’s going to fight Bisping. I don’t believe he’s going to fight again. That’s my personal opinion.”
“He even said no to (UFC executive) Lorenzo Fertitta’s face. Face-to-face, not over the phone – Lorenzo brought him out, sat him down, and said, ‘This is the fight we want.’ And Anderson said no.”
Silva (31-4 MMA, 14-0 UFC), who has successfully defended his middleweight title a record nine times, has been out of action for more than five months following a shoulder injury sustained prior to his winning bout against Yushin Okami at UFC 134.
So if Uncle Chael can thwart Bisping’s own ambitions of vying for the title and as long as Silva is fully recuperated, the fight as White intimated, is a dead cert, with the destination being Brazil.
Conversely, it’s not a surefire bet that Sonnen (26-11-1 MMA, 5-4 UFC) will win and if that transpires the possibility of the title bout taking place in front of Bisping’s countrymen could be an option for the Zuffa-based hierarchy—from a financial perspective that is.
Even though Bisping (22-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) is the most famous and lucrative mixed martial artist to have emerged from the shores of Britain and to boot with a large fan base, White was adamant that the fight will happen in Brazil.
“The answer, hands down, is Brazil,” White said on UFC on Fuel when asked if the UK or Brazil would be the ideal destination. “You could do an 80,000-seater soccer stadium down there.
“50 million people will watch live on television… remember all the stuff I used to say about Canada? Brazil wins. Brazil is the new Mecca of martial arts,” White said.
UFC on Fox 2 is set for Jan. 28, 2012, at the United Center in Chicago, Ill.
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