The ‘American Gangster’ says he will not slink off into retirement.
Despite suffering one of the most lop-sided losses of his career, Chael Sonnen said he is going to continue to fight in the octagon – and do it at 205 pounds.
Sonnen was unsuccessful at winning the light heavyweight title at UFC 159 when he was dominated by champion Jon Jones and finished via TKO near the end of the first round.
In the lead-up to the widely publicised title fight, many pundits believed that Jones would be too good in every area of mixed martial arts to be worried by Sonnen.
And so it proved, with the 25-year-old outdoing Sonnen at the game-plan that has made him one of the sport’s most successful middleweights.
However, after the loss and with Sonnen’s chances at another title shot in his career all but over, the question after UFC 159 turned to what is next for Sonnen.
It did not take long for the man himself to answer the question.
“I will definitely continue – and at 205 pounds, unless they come up with a catchweight,” Sonnen said.
“They have a couple of people that do that. I know Rich Franklin has fought at catchweights a bunch, but I’m not going to be in contendership anytime soon, and neither is Rich Franklin or a pool of other guys. So there is a little bit of room where we could meet in the middle.
“Now that I’ve dropped Rich’s name, this wasn’t my way of challenging Rich. I was speaking to the point of the catchweight situation. I’m going to stick around.”
Sonnen’s new target is fellow veteran Wanderlei Silva (35-12-1 MMA, 6-6 UFC) with the ‘Gangster from West Linn’ saying the war of words between the two needs to come to a head.
“He’s called me out before, and I’ve called him out, but the fight never really made sense,” Sonnen said.
“I was a contender, and he was just a guy on the card. Now I think the fight does make it a little more sense.”
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