‘It’s One Of My Worst Moments’

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Chael Sonnen was one-half of one of the all-time greatest mixed martial arts (MMA) rivalries.

“The American Gangster” emerged as the top Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight contender at the perfect time when he challenged the dominant reigning champion, Anderson Silva, at UFC 117 in August 2010. Silva had successfully accrued six title defenses ahead of the Sonnen encounter, running so low on viable challengers that he would take non-title tilts at Light Heavyweight. It didn’t help that Silva’s previous two defenses were all-time stinker unanimous decisions over fellow Brazilians, Thales Leites and Demian Maia.

UFC 117 had all the makings of an era-changing event as Sonnen got the world highly intrigued in the match up with his confidence and dominant performances. On fight night, it was more of the same as he pitched a shutout against the divisional kingpin, breaking strike records along the way. That was until the historic comeback victory was pulled off by Silva via a triangle choke in round five. The fight will now join UFC’s Hall of Fame, as announced at UFC 300 this past weekend (April 13, 2024).

“I gotta tell you, I’ve never felt good about a loss,” Sonnen said of his Hall of Fame induction on Good Guy / Bad Guy. “Nothing’s changed in my life. Like, I didn’t wake up and all of a sudden they reversed the decision, or I wake up, and I got a rematch and I beat him. I got some praise, and I must tell you it feels very good to get a pat on the back.

“I mean, one of the worst moments,” he continued. “One that’s kept me up at night is now the one that keeps me up from excitement. I lost, and that’s a little bit weird, but here I am.”

Silva and Sonnen did end up rematching when they fought at UFC 148 two years later. Still one of the biggest events of all time, Sonnen started the fight off similarly to how the first fight majorly looked, taking down and dominating “The Spider.” Unfortunately for Sonnen, an ill-fated spinning back fist attempt spelled the end in round two when he missed and was finished by strikes directly after.

Sonnen, 47, fought for another seven years after the Silva rivalry concluded. When the first Silva fight was announced as an upcoming inductee, Sonnen was completely caught off guard.

“I’ve got to tell you, that thing was so fun,” Sonnen said. “I never really envisioned this and Glenn Jacobs helped us set up. I had no idea until that came out of Jon Anik’s mouth. Even when he said it he didn’t say my name, he said ‘The Bad Guy,’ and I sat there, and I thought, ‘Well, they used to call me the bad guy.’ I had one of those moments.

“It was just fun, man,” he concluded. “It was just exciting… It was very cool, and I was very grateful.”