While one much anticipated “super-fight” will no longer be happening in 2012, it appears another one is a go.
After Carlos Condit outpointed Nick Diaz in the main event of UFC 143 Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas — and thus putting the kibosh on a GSP-Diaz grudge match to unify the welterweight titles — UFC president Dana White was asked about whether Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen 2 had been signed.
The man on the podium gave the answer all of us wanted to hear.
“It’s a go,” said White, who added that it wasn’t signed but that both parties had verbally agreed to it.
That’s right, both parties. It appears Sonnen was wrong — fifth time was a charm.
White said the fight will take place in June at a location in Brazil, as expected, but that an exact date or venue hadn’t been set yet.
Silva was present at the weekend’s Super Bowl weekend show in Las Vegas, which is where the eagerly expected agreement was (finally) reached.
Sonnen, who dominated the UFC middleweight champion for four and a half rounds at UFC 117 in August 2010 before he got caught in a triangle choke in the final round and lost by submission, recently said he not only thought Silva would never accept his offer for a rematch, but that he wouldn’t fight anyone else again.
“(The UFC has) offered him the fight four times, and he said no four times," Sonnen said. "I’ve never heard of ‘fifth time’s a charm.’"
Sonnen reiterated the opinion at the UFC on FOX 2 post-fight press conference following his win last weekend over Michael Bisping, which earned him the official title shot. But White was quick to give everyone hope.
“Chael is nuts,” White said. “Don’t listen to him. Listen to me … I have to have a separate press conference to stop all the stuff that Chael Sonnen says.”
Last month, White announced that the UFC would be returning to the South American country in June for a fight in Sao Paulo at a soccer stadium yet to be determined. It is expected to also feature the finale of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil as well as a middleweight battle between coaches Vitor Belfort and Wanderlei Silva.
Sonnen said he is more than willing to enter hostile territory to face Silva, who would be competing in the UFC in his natvie Brazil for the second time after knocking out Yushin Okami last August at the organization’s return to the country for the first time in 13 years.
“It doesn’t matter where you fight, Brazil, Vegas, anywhere, you fight in the Octagon and that’s what matters,” Sonnen said.
As for the death threats he received after disparaging comments he’s made about Brazil (he takes shots at everyone and everything, including Canada), Sonnen said he wasn’t at all concerned with his safety.
“If those blowhards with their blowdarts want to come at me, they can send anybody they want, just don’t send anybody you want back,” he said with his typical bravado.
