If you woke up on the ‘wrong side of the bed’ today (which depending on what you consumed last night could mean various things),  you may be happy to find out that reports are firing around the internet, saying that Chael Sonnen will receive an immediate rematch with Anderson Silva sometime this winter.  According to a report on MMA Junkie, UFC top dawg Dana White confirmed on ESPN’s SportsCenter that Silva will indeed fight Sonnen when he returns from his rib injury, although no date is apparently fixed. In addition, a ‘tweet’ from the LA Times’ Lance Pugmire (thanks to Cage Potato for the heads up), stated:

UFC will stage Anderson Silva-Chael Sonnen rematch on New Year’s Eve or Super Bowl card, depending on Silva’s hurt ribs.

Pretty exciting stuff no? If you’re a Sonnen ‘booster’ then you know your boy is getting another (and really, well deserved) crack at Silva, and if you’re more about “The Spider”, then you get to see how a healthy champ fairs in the rematch (we’ll leave aside the whole ‘everyone’s injured when they fight, blah, blah, blah’ debate for another time).

So where does this leave Vitor Belfort? Who, as you likely know, has been the focus of speculation as to whether he might face Sonnen next while Silva is sidelined, well, yesterday he tweeted that he’s fighting in November. Why not see how “The Phenom” does against Yushin Okami?

Announcing after a fight (that you just got beat down in) that you were injured heading into it, is kind of like telling your buddy you think his girl is banging your other friend; yes, people need to hear the truth, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to like hearing it. Okay, maybe those two things aren’t at all similar, (and here’s hoping you don’t have experience in either scenario) but if you were one of the people screaming “B.S.” when Anderson Silva said he had injured his rib prior to his bout with Chael Sonnen, an apology might be in order.

According to the California State Athletic Commission, who released their medical suspensions from UFC 117 yesterday, Silva is suspected of having a fractured rib and is suspended from fighting for 6 months (unless cleared by a doctor prior). Now yes, the rib injury could have been sustained during the fight while Sonnen continually beat on the champ, but the normally fleet of foot Silva did seem a little off from the opening bell no? It’s not like the CSAC said he didn’t hurt his rib; that would have looked sketchy.

The confirmation doesn’t change much in the sense that we all knew Silva would be on the sidelines for a while, and although Sonnen certainly deserves another crack based off his performance, the door does seem wide open for a Sonnen vs. Vitor Belfort tilt in the meantime? Joe, Dana, the Fertitta fellas, we doing this?

Admit it, when you were  younger “Above the Law” was the sh-t; Steve Seagal was breaking arms, throwing dudes around like rag dolls, you may have been one of the thousands of kids to beg their parents for Aikido lessons as a result. Of course, for most, their love affair with Seagal soon waned, due in no small part to the dozens of straight-to-the 99 cent-bin quality films that the actor spawned. If you’re a regular MMA forum goer then you also know that you won’t often hear Seagal’s name mentioned in the same breath as say Helio Gracie, unless of course, the actor is somehow involved in the punch line.

Why all this talk about Seagal? Well if you weren’t too gooned while watching UFC 117, then you probably noticed that the actor accompanied Anderson Silva to the Octagon. A while back footage surfaced of Silva training with Seagal and “The Spider” seemed pretty damn impressed with some of the stuff the “Lawman” was busting out. Well, in a recent interview with Tatame, Silva had this to say to those people (you know who you are), who have been dissing Seagal after seeing him Saturday night.

“It’s a bad joke, he’s a great master and a great coach who was there with me, helped me all the time a lot. On the beginning of my trainings, we showed me some techniques which worked out and he deserves the respect of all of us. He’s a great master and a good person. I believe people have to respect him.”

Who are we to argue with the champ? Besides, we prefer our limbs unsnapped.

Okay, not long after speculating that the discussion about Saturday’s ‘where were you when?’ Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen tilt could quite possibly stretch into September, here’s another report to throw in the mix. Immediately following the memorable fight we jumped right on the rematch bandwagon, and by the looks of the internet, that thing is picking up more ‘hop-ons’ by the second. So let’s do it up right?

Well in an interesting report today from MMA Fighting’s Ben Fowlkes, Silva’s manager Ed Soares doesn’t exactly sound like he’s 100% sold on doing Silva vs. Sonnen II right away. While appearing on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Soares was reportedly quoted saying:

“The way I look at it is, Chael fought his fight. And Chael had Anderson on his back for twenty-two minutes of that fight. …The way I feel is that Chael had Anderson in the position he wanted him, and if he wasn’t able to finish Anderson in twenty-two minutes in the position you said you wanted him in, then, hey man, you had your shot. No offense, not saying you can’t get another shot, but you know what I mean?”

Now Soares did concede that “part” of him thinks it would “”make a lot of sense” to do a rematch; yes, one would think so (cue cash register dinging). In terms of Chael failing to finish Silva, and thus he’s had his “shot,” yeah (as in Bill Lumbergh from Office Space style), don’t think that’s going to fly with most people.

We’ve now moved into ‘Day Two’ of UFC 117 post-fight analysis, and due to the fact Anderson Silva kind of had his ass handed to him by Chael Sonnen before pulling off the near, last minute win, be prepared for what? Two; three weeks straight of endless coverage regarding this story? Guess when one considers that the vast majority of people didn’t expect Sonnen to even come close in this fight, much less dominate the champ for four rounds, people are going to talk about it and then some (kind of like Chael’s pre-fight ‘insights.’)

Of course people are already talking rematch, not just because Silva barely squeaked out of Oakland with the middleweight belt still in his possession, but the champ’s post fight revelation that he injured his ribs recently makes the case for a rematch that much more compelling. In an interesting interview with Sherdog.com, Sonnen’s long time training partner and coach Matt Lindland had this to say, when asked about the prospect of Silva vs. Sonnen II.

“I hope so; I hope we see him right back in there with Anderson and that we will in short order. I don’t know what the UFC’s plans are for a rematch yet, or if he has to fight someone to get that rematch or whatever, but we’re willing to do whatever. Chael’s willing to take the rematch, to fight whoever he needs to fight to get one; it doesn’t matter.”

We agree. Lindland also talked about Sonnen being injured heading into the fight in the interview, as well as the now infamous ‘it wasn’t me’ Lance Armstrong incident. Check it out here.

If you heart is still racing after last night’s ‘I’ll never forget when’ bout between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen, you’re not alone (although if that sh-t doesn’t settle down within an hour or two…it’s probably time to head to the ER). Really, and be honest, after getting punished for 4 rounds did you really think Silva would pull off that Hail Mary triangle-choke?

At any rate, Silva fan or not, Sonnen enthusiast or hater, the bout will go down as a classic. Of course, due to the over the top pre-fight trash talk from Sonnen, fans were likely always going to recall the outcome. In fact, it’s probably on account of Sonnen’s verbal assault that most people were riding the edge of their seat from the opening bell.

At the post fight presser Sonnen offered a few good zingers about having a rematch with Silva, but things were relatively ‘civil’ in comparison to the pre-fight banter. Not surprisingly, Silva maintained that he holds nothing against Chael, despite taking verbal abuse from him the likes of which the sport has rarely seen. One interesting comment from Silva was in regards to finishing the fight by submission (thanks to MMA Fighting for the quote)

“I’ve been training jiu-jitsu for a long time,” said Silva through his manager/translator, Ed Soares. “Out of respect to [Antonio Rodrigo] Nogueira, I wanted to finish this fight via submission.”

Now maybe we’re just desperate to stir the pot here, but that couldn’t be a veiled comeback at Sonnen’s recent dismissal of Silva’s black belt under the Nogueiras could it? Something about a punching bag? Here’s hoping the rematch comes sooner than later.

If you think about it, and this is easy for us to say since Chael Sonnen hasn’t been belittling us, our friends and sense of fashion, Anderson Silva might want to thank his next opponent for his over the top trash talk. It’s probably fair to say that if not for Chael’s vicious verbal assault heading into UFC 117, maybe there still would be a ton of focus on Silva’s WTF? antics vs. Demian Maia. Of course, the post-fight discussion took on a new life following his awful UFC 112 showing, due to Dana White’s insistence that Silva would get canned if he ever acted that way again.

Now we’re not trying to say Silva’s performance against Maia and his subsequent issues with White (and a lot of fans) has completely dropped off the radar screen, but you have to admit, Sonnen’s zingers have certainly dominated the headlines. All this aside, however, White continues to insist that if Silva does in fact have the balls to repeat his UFC 112 actions, Mr. #1 P4P will be unemployed (thanks to MMA Junkie for the quote).

“It’s about acting like a lunatic,” White said. “If he ever goes out and acts like a nut, like he did [at UFC 112], yes, I would cut him.”

Somehow we’re thinking this isn’t going to be an issue come Saturday night—certain things have been said; now it’s go time. To bet on tomorrow’s ‘this should be sick’ card, head here.

If you’ve been following the verbal warfare Chael Sonnen’s launched at Anderson Silva as they head into their tilt next weekend, then you know he’s got a teee-onne of sh-t ready to be dumped on his bed, if he gets bombed out on the 7^th. We jumped all over Chael’s ‘what did he say now?’ trash talk when the bout was first made official, but over the last couple of weeks, the tough as nails wrestler has really been pouring it on huh? Sure its damn entertaining, but even some of Sonnen’s biggest supporters must be thinking about the massive humble pie their boys going to have to eat, if he in fact loses.

It seemed like for a few days there (at least from our always clouded perspective) Sonnen’s trash talk had simmered down just a tad, but more recently, things have apparently ‘perked up.’ For example, in the recent UFC teleconference, Sonnen was quoted saying (thanks to ESPN UK for the quotes):

“I’m the toughest guy in the company period, whether it’s Anderson or any other opponent,” stated Sonnen. “There’s never been a guy with earrings that could out-tough me and he’s not going to be the first.”….”You’ve got to understand; I could drag Anderson Silva outside the hotel and beat him up any time I want. I’ve made a commitment to wait until August 7th and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure millions of people watch me do it.”

Wow. A little enraging here, a few laughs there; now that’s how you hype a fight no? To bet on the bout head here.

Now, depending on your personality you may have had a few different reactions to the above headline, varying from uncontrolled ‘OMG please let it be true’ ecstasy, to  the more cynical (and often we’d say more realistic attitude) ‘I’ll believe it when I see it.’ Of course if you didn’t read the headline you may also be thinking ‘what the holy eff are you talking about?’

For some time now fans and pundits alike, have hoped that someday the UFC would put together a ‘super fight’ between current middleweight champ Anderson Silva and welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. In the past, UFC boss man Dana White hasn’t exactly gone out of his way to hype up the fight, arguing that St. Pierre is likely too small to compete at 185 , while Silva is probably too big for 170. Lately, however, White has acknowledged that the fans demand for such a P4P, all-star bout, may just be too hard to pass up (yeah no sh-t).

In a recent interview with MMA Weekly, Silva’s manager Ed Soares talked about the prospect of his fighter facing GSP; here is some of what he had to say:

“First of all, I think to protect both champions, I think it’s smarter to do it at a catchweight possibly, but who knows? Anderson… I don’t think he could. Maybe he could, I’m not sure, make it down to 170. I think it’s much easier and more likely that Georges goes up to 185.”… “Tell GSP to make weight, we’ll be waiting,” Soares said simply.

Yes, it’s completely okay to giggle with excited glee, however, first things first, namely two wrestling studs with the names Josh Koscheck and Chael Sonnen. After that…?

Anyone who’s been following Chael Sonnen’s pre-fight, smack talking fest as he heads into his August 7^th bout with Anderson Silva, shouldn’t be surprised to find out that the champion seems to be getting a little tired of Sonnen’s verbal assault. We’ve gone on plenty a time about Sonnen’s gift for controversial gab, and as the fight draws nearer, his trash talking seems to be getting more attention (belittling one of, if not the world’s best fighter tends to get noticed…)

What’s the latest newsworthy ‘Sonnen’ from Sonnen? Well in a clip from the upcoming UFC 117 preview, the punishing wrestler once again let the insults fly in Silva’s direction, stating, amongst other things:

“He fought a one-legged Canadian, he fought a math teacher from Ohio and he fought a bunch of guys who weren’t even good enough to hold their spot in the company…His running is done, his 15 minutes of fame are up and I’m gonna bring it to an abrupt halt.”

Pssst; Patrick Cote and Rich Franklin, we think he’s talking about you….And far as Silva’s opinion on having his resume criticized, one that most observers seem to think has entrenched Silva in the world’s best P4P position? Speaking to Tatame.com recently the middleweight champ said this:

“What he’s saying is disrespecting me; he’s disrespecting me and all opponents I’ve faced. Dan Henderson, in my opinion, is the best Wrestler that there is out there on MMA”.

August 7^th here we come. To bet on the fight head here.