While UFC president Dana White made it very clear he was unhappy with his middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, following a lackluster appearance at this past weekend's UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi, the exec isn't hesitating to put "The Spider" back in action.
White announced today during an appearance on ESPN's "Jim Rome is Burning" that the organization was targeting a fight between Silva and top contender Chael Sonnen.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has since confirmed the UFC is targeting Aug. 7 in Salt Lake City, marking the UFC's first-ever trip to Utah.
- MMA Junkie reports on Anderson SIlva's next challenge.
White is clearly looking to make a fight that is going to make Silva be active. Sonnen is a pressure fighter who constantly looks for takedowns and wants to work from top position. He's a smart enough guy to know that he can't toy around on the feet and must push inside where he can look for a lock-up and takedown. He'll still be a big underdog come fight time, but the intention isn't to make Silva lose, it's to make him fight.
Almost as important as the fight itself is the hype job that will be done leading up to it. Sonnen is one of the best trash talkers in the game right now and he has done a great job of taking shots at Silva to land himself in this position. Recently he's taken to making sure to be public about just how little people care about Silva.
It still should be an Anderson Silva win, but it's going to be a hell of a fun ride to get there.
5 comments
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Comments
Siva vs Sonnen
If Dana White really wants to make up to fans for Abu Dhabi, as he clearly remarked, this card should be free. Then I would feel the fans really count.
by Miguel A Fernandez on Apr 15, 2010 3:36 PM EDT reply actions
Good
Hopefully Silva shuts Sonnen up for a while. Guy is always so annoying in pre-fight trash talk.
Silva fights when his opponents actually come after him so I doubt this will be a match with a boring ending (though fantastic start) like the last one.
by Roa on Apr 15, 2010 9:33 PM EDT reply actions
What happens when
Sonnen fails to complete his take downs and clinch attempts but Silva manages to blast him every time he tries. Do we get another poor excuse for a title fight? I agree this card should be on free tv and the card needs to be stacked with top contender bouts.
by chitownteams1 on Apr 15, 2010 11:04 PM EDT reply actions
Siva vs Sonnen
on more bad card silva need to fight gsp. he is just going to make a fuel of sonned i can already fill it then we will be like o silva did it again. let him and gsp get one of the biggest pay per view ever for UFC history
by Rob Cares on Apr 16, 2010 11:29 AM EDT reply actions
Who’s have thought that Sonnen would turn out to be the good guy in this fight. He talks some trash, but in terms of straight disrespect, he can take some notes from Silva.
Charles
-MMA Chronicles Team (www.mmachronicles.com)
by circuitbreaker on Apr 19, 2010 6:35 AM EDT reply actions
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