Chael Sonnen: “I Am the True Middleweight Champion”

Chael Sonnen has said that he is a man of his word. His word was good last evening, as he stifled and smothered Brian Stann with continuous take downs, and his brand of ground-and-pound before finishing the fight with an arm-triangle choke at UFC 136.

“It was a big relief and this was a big fight,” exclaimed Sonnen.

After the win, the trash talk immediately turned to UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Sonnen wasted little time getting to the subject of Silva, and stated that if he were to lose a second time to the reigning champion, that he would never fight in the UFC again. Sonnen questioned why Silva would just simply smile at his comments, and promised that if he were the champ sitting in the audience, things would have went differently.

“If the roles would have been reversed, I would have come over the [cage] and shoved that microphone up his ass,” said Sonnen “but you saw what he did. He sat there. It was a good move.”

Whether he makes good on the promise of leaving the UFC if a second loss were to occur, depends on the outcome of a highly anticipated rematch between Sonnen and Silva which appears to be a bout that could happen in the very near future.

Sonnen later issued a loser leave town challenge, and asked for the rematch to take place on Super Bowl weekend (Feb. 4, 2012). Again, Sonnen insisted that with a loss, he would “leave the UFC forever,” and called for the UFC to forever banish Silva from the ranks of middleweight should he unseat the champion.

“I’ve got plenty of money and plenty of fame. I’m after twelve pounds of gold,” said Sonnen. “As far as I’m concerned, that belt is nothing but a piece of tin when it’s around [Silva’s] waist. I am the true middleweight champion.”