Replacement needed for main-event card fight after injury to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
It did not take long for the ‘American Gangster’ to let his fingers do the talking and fire a shot across the bow of Mauricio Rua.
In the wake of a back injury to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (21-5 MMA, 4-2 UFC) forcing him out of his scheduled bout against Rua (21-7 MMA, 5-5 UFC) at UFC 161, Sonnen has again played the social media card.
Sonnen (27-13-1 MMA, 6-6 UFC) took to his Twitter account to challenge Rua to accept his request for a fight, which is scheduled to happen in just 13 days’ time.
@shogunrua I HEAR BRAZILIAN CHICKEN IS OFF THE MENU. AMERICAN GANGSTER IS STILL AVAILABLE IF YOU WANT TO SEND YOUR WAITRESS OVER.
— chael sonnen (@sonnench) June 3, 2013
It is the second time that Sonnen has tried to talk his way into a fight, after offering to fight Light Heavyweight champion Jon Jones at UFC 151 off just 10 days’ notice.
While that bid to talk his way into a bout did not work initially, eventually Sonnen did get his hands on Jones in the main event at UFC 159, where he lost comprehensively to the younger champion.
However, it is yet to be seen if the UFC will react to Sonnen’s latest bid to use social media to build hype for his possible inclusion to face Rua.
Sonnen is 0-4 in his recent title bouts, but his confidence and ability to talk up any fight might see the UFC matchmakers again throw the ‘Gangster from West Linn’ in on short notice, given they will not want to tinker around with a card that has already been disrupted.
Originally the card was meant to include a bantamweight interim title fight between Renan Barao and former WEC titleholder Eddie Wineland, before the former pulled out due to injury, seeing the Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson bout promoted to the last on the night.
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