While UFC president Dana White made it very clear he was unhappy with his middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, following a lackluster appearance at this past weekend’s UFC 112 event in Abu Dhabi, the exec isn’t hesitating to put “The Spider” back in action.
White announced today during an appearance on ESPN’s “Jim Rome is Burning” that the organization was targeting a fight between Silva and top contender Chael Sonnen.
MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has since confirmed the UFC is targeting Aug. 7 in Salt Lake City, marking the UFC’s first-ever trip to Utah.
Dana White Announces Anderson Silva v. Chael Sonnen
White is clearly looking to make a fight that is going to make Silva be active. Sonnen is a pressure fighter who constantly looks for takedowns and wants to work from top position. He’s a smart enough guy to know that he can’t toy around on the feet and must push inside where he can look for a lock-up and takedown. He’ll still be a big underdog come fight time, but the intention isn’t to make Silva lose, it’s to make him fight.
Almost as important as the fight itself is the hype job that will be done leading up to it. Sonnen is one of the best trash talkers in the game right now and he has done a great job of taking shots at Silva to land himself in this position. Recently he’s taken to making sure to be public about just how little people care about Silva.
It still should be an Anderson Silva win, but it’s going to be a hell of a fun ride to get there.
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