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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
After a few days of consideration, Chael Sonnen opted against retirement following his loss to Jon Jones at UFC 159. In particular, Sonnen has one fight he feels he needs to address before he can walk away.
"Wanderlei [Silva] called me out before, but the fight never made sense. Now it does," Sonnen said. "I'm not going anywhere until me and Wanderlei straighten this thing out once and for all. Wanderlei pulled a dirt bag move on me one time. He said something to me that I couldn't hear, and then put it on YouTube with subtitles because he knew I couldn't understand it and called me out. If you're a fighter, that doesn't fly. You must respond to him, and I'm ready to respond to you Wanderlei."
Silva's coming off a knockout win against common opponent Brian Stann, and has wanted a fight with Sonnen for some time. With both fighters planning on staying at light heavyweight, it's a fight that could make sense.
Penick's Analysis: Sonnen-W. Silva's a sensible matchup. Silva's called him out in the past, Sonnen's wanting to continue at light heavyweight, and it's the one fight that might have a little heat on it because of their personal dislike for one another. Of course, with Sonnen, how much of that is actual dislike and how much of it is schtick (I'd lean 98% schtick) is debatable. That said, it's a fight that would make sense for the UFC to book, and there aren't a ton of those for Sonnen from a marketable standpoint given how he's been beaten in his last two.
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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