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With yesterday’s news that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira was forced to withdraw from his scheduled UFC 161 light heavyweight bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua due to injury, the gangster from West Linn, Ore. made it known he was more than willing to fill the vacancy for the June 15 match-up in Winnipeg.
And he did it in that special Chael Sonnen fashion that has made him famous:
@ShogunRua I HEAR BRAZILIAN
CHICKEN IS OFF THE MENU. AMERICAN GANGSTER IS STILL AVAILABLE IF YOU WANT TO SEND YOUR WAITRESS OVER.— Chael Sonnen (@ChaelSonnen) June 3, 2013
Although it appeared for a time the bout between Chael Sonnen vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua was all but official, it’s not happening. At least not at UFC 161. Instead Shogun will be booked on a card later this summer and UFC 161 will proceed with 11 bouts.
Tatame reporter Guilherme Cruz has a quote from Shogun:
“I’m very sad that I won’t be able to fight at June 15. I got so much ready for this with my team of coaches. I was crazy to fight. I had already changed my strategy, I was ready to get in action, but the UFC told my manager that Sonnen had problems to get a visa to fly to Canada. That’s why they cancelled the fight, and that’s a shame. I’ll have to wait a little longer to fight again, but my will is only getting bigger. UFC asked me to keep training, that I would fight on August 17, at Boston. I’d like to thank the support of my fans, they always gave me strength to train harder and fight.”
That’s too bad really. Sonnen, who competed unsuccessfully for the UFC middleweight title twice against Anderson Silva, is known for his willingness to tow the company line and step up to take big fights on short notice when others would not.
In fact, his willingness to do that earned him a light heavyweight title shot against Jon Jones at UFC 159 in April. A title shot is hard enough to come by in and of itself. But to get an immediate title shot in a weight class you haven’t fought in for several years, and in spite of the fact you’re coming off a loss, well, let’s just say you have to be a very unique and special individual.
That’s Chael Sonnen.
Sonnen is coming off back-to-back losses for the first time since 2004. He suffered a first round TKO loss to Anderson Silva at UFC 148 last July and dropped a second round TKO to Jon Jones at UFC 159 in April. Prior to that he had back-to-back wins over Michael Bisping and Brian Stann at middleweight.
“Shogun” is also coming off a loss, having dropped a unanimous decision to Alexander Gustafsson at UFC on FOX 5 back in December. Just prior to that he stopped Brandon Vera via fourth round TKO at UFC on FOX 4 back in August 2012.
Stay close to ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com) for more UFC news and updates.
UPDATE 11 p.m. CT: Thanks for trying Chael but it’s not happening. Shogun (nor Chael Sonnen) will be fighting at UFC 161. Instead Shogun will be booked on a card later this summer and UFC 161 will proceed with 11 bouts.
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