This is a troll right?
Sonnen is a 185 pounder who is moving up in weight and is going to be fighting the ex champ and top contender in machida. wtf?! 
Good question. He is coming off a loss at 185 and usually guys look to move down not up when they want to try and get a win.
i guess Zuffa wants to get rid of Chael.
I thought that was just a rumor.
Has it been confirmed anywhere?
Hormone replacement therapy bulk up match.
he said he was gonna beat up Machida on the way to beating up Anderson (who he just lost to PED'd out of his skull)...Machida said O RLY? the UFC said mkay. now Chael is like hmm, after I sign for it when should I pull out of this fight, at the 6 week or 8 week mark?
EPGScott - ^He asked for it and said it would be a fight before he went to 185 he would stop at 205. My guess would be during his time off he put on a lot of mass and it will take time to get rid of. If the fight does go down and he does win, it sets up a rematch with Silva with a great story to sell the fight. First Sonnen almost beats Silva then goes up in weight to beat his team mate and comes back to 185 to redeem himself. That would be a BIG PPV for the UFC.
yeah but you don't stop at 205 to face the most dangerous striker in the UFC thinking he's going to get through by dry humping him for 3 rounds. Machida is wayy too elusive for CHael. If he doesn't get KTFO trying to get a take down he'll get reversed on the ground and get GNPded imo.
Cuz Chael is a bad muthafucka!
Chael has as good of a shot against Machida as anyone else. Machida makes everyone look bad, Sonnen's best bet is to hunt him down like rampage did and pressure him the whole time.
yeah, doesn't make much sense. but then again Chael does seem to be somewhat of a draw now and when that happens you can get what you ask for. I think he'll regret this one though.
Tune up fight.
Machida needs a win over somebody who can be plausibly spun as a "big name" in order to get himself back in the title mix; then, if Phil Davis beats Rashad but not impressively, Machida gets the winner of Jon Jones-Rampage after that.
story line. It's a fact.
He beats Machida, it sets up a huge fight with A. Silva where Silva needs to get revenge on the man that beat his friend.
There isnt a real exciting fight at 185 for him right now either. Maybe Vitor, but not much else.
If Chael gets ktfo in highlight reel style(please god!), he can save face by saying he moved up to 205 and fought an ex champ. He drops down to 185 and beat 1 guy and he's back against silva
He wants to lose to the entire Black House team. Then he'll fight the Nogs, then he'll call out Aldo.
DarkReflection - Sonnen used to fight at 205. And if he wants a fight sooner rather than later he fights at 205 because he's blown up in his off time. I'm sure he'll drop back to 185 eventually.
Cheers
-DR
thats what i was thinking. cheal is a big dude. he could easily carry 220 imo. i'm sure there was a lot of this
As someone else said who is he going to fight at 185? The only real option is Vitor? I think Machida is a better matchup for him stylistically and will sell a hell of a lot more PPV's. It's a brilliant career move.
To the tards who think he will pull out with an injury - are you kidding me? He would never do that after the hot water he was in with the UFC unless he wanted to ruin his career.
You can hate him all you want but he tooled Silva for 4.5 rounds PLUS he has fought many fights at 205 before. Machida and him are about the same size. Chael's natural weight actually may be heavier. I can't wait for him to avenge Randy Couture's tooth!
Machida is going to KO him
Calavaro - Hormone replacement therapy bulk up match.Yeah Chael's been looking pretty swole lately.
It's a guaranteed high-profit fight featuring two of the sports most enigmatic fighters.
kungfugrip - story line. It's a fact.
He beats Machida, it sets up a huge fight with A. Silva where Silva needs to get revenge on the man that beat his friend.
There isnt a real exciting fight at 185 for him right now either. Maybe Vitor, but not much else.
If Chael gets ktfo in highlight reel style(please god!), he can save face by saying he moved up to 205 and fought an ex champ. He drops down to 185 and beat 1 guy and he's back against silva
If Rashad does move down to 185, he'll give Sonnen all the "excitement" he can handle - not to mention a healthy dose of grief.