Chael Sonnen announced Wednesday that he signed a new five-fight contract with the UFC. That wasn’t surprising, but Sonnen did release some fairly shocking news during his interview on UFC Tonight — most, and possibly all, five of those fights will be at the 185-pound level.
Sonnen revealed that he plans to return to fighting as middleweight after his highly anticipated upcoming light-heavyweight bout against Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua at UFC Fight Night 26 on August 17.
The 36-year old has spent most of career as a middleweight, but moved up to the 205-pound weight-class earlier this year for a title shot against Jon ‘Bones’ Jones.
Sonnen lost the bout against Jones to a convincing first-round knockout, but seemed prepared to fight his way back into a rematch with the light-heavyweight champion. That journey would have started with his matchup against seventh-ranked Rua, but has been stopped before it even got started.
Since Sonnen last accepted the fight against Shogun, the middleweight division has been thrown into chaos with Chris Weidman’s victory over seven-year belt-holder Anderson Silva at UFC 162. The long-awaited dethroning of Silva appears to have given Sonnen new hope of finally capturing the middleweight title that he has been looking for since he moved to the UFC in 2009.
Sonnen originally moved up to light-heavyweight after Silva defeated him twice in the span of two years between 2010 and 2012, but the Spider seems vulnerable after his loss to Weidman and Sonnen clearly has his eye on a third fight with the former champion.
Whether that fight comes as a title fight remains to be seen, as Silva will try to regain his title in a rematch with Weidman on December 28. It is clear, however, that Sonnen will not get to battle Silva or Weidman in his first fight back at 185 pounds.
The ‘American Gangster’ will have to prove that he is still worthy of a title shot after losing two fights in a row — one to Jones and one to Silva. If Sonnen has his way, his first fight in his return to middleweight will be against top contender, Vitor Belfort. Belfort is currently the second-ranked middleweight fighter behind only Silva and champion Weidman, so if Sonnen can defeat him, it would put Chael right back in the title conversation.
Sonnen also had motivation to return to 185 pounds, in the form of Wanderlei Silva. ‘The Axe Murderer’ has also recently moved into the 185-pound class, and he and Sonnen have quite a bit of bad blood between the two of them. Sonnen certainly wants a shot at Silva before everything is said and done.
Sonnen is 36-years-old and at this point in his career has only one thing missing from his resume — a title belt. It seems that he felt the quickest way to getting a shot at a belt was in the middleweight class, so maybe his move isn’t so shocking after all.
Dylan Sinn is a freelance contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSinn or subscribe at Facebook.com/CraveOnlineSports.
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