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For Chael P. Sonnen, This Time It’s Personal
News broke earlier this week that Chael Sonnen’s next opponent would be Lyoto Machida. Sonnen is coming off of a loss against the legendary Fedor, but this time he is at a more natural weight class and has a little extra motivation against his next opponent.
Sonnen has made a career making mince meat of his opponent’s leading up to their eventual fight. The American Gangster has found himself living rent free in his opponent’s head by launching verbal assaults, that at the time had been previously seen. Most recently we witnessed this when his long burning feud with Wanderlei Silva was settled at MSG.
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However, his next opponent provides a different type of motivation for Uncle Chael. Lyoto Machida isn’t the type of athlete to engage in verbal warfare with Chael. Like a flame, they tend to extinguish without oxygen. That said, Chael has stated that this one is personal.
Machida has two victories over two of Chael’s former teammates. Both Dan Henderson and Randy Couture suffered losses to the former UFC Champion Machida. Lyoto’s unusual style has tripped up plenty of competitors in his career. One of the most notable wins happened when he clashed with Randy Couture at UFC 129. Machida was able to land one of the most picture perfect front kicks, to the UFC Legend Couture. All the while Sonnen was in the background watching his former teammates being defeated.
So this time it’s personal. How these two match up is quite interesting, as both of their gameplans are fairly evident from the outside looking in. It’s clearly a grappler vs striker match up. Chael has made a career off of closing the distance and making his opponent wear damage from devastating ground and pound. Machida will clearly want to manage distance and look to catch Sonnen coming in for the takedown. Here is an interview Chael recently did with MMAFIGHTING.com so you can hear his take on the match up with Machida.
Depending on who wins the options are endless for Bellator. Sonnen has made it clear that he is willing to accept a fight with Ryan Bader at either Light Heavyweight or Heavyweight where Bader is the Champion. Machida also would be able to stake a claim to fight Bader, since he does in fact have a victory over him. The winner of Gegard and Lovato would also make an interesting match up for the Dragon.
The American Gangster has fought just about every legend in the sport of MMA. Anderson Silva, Wanderlei Silva, and Jon Jone are just a few of the names that West Linn’s own has tussled with. Gangster Grappling uses Chael’s extensive background to give the BJJ guy a wrestler’s spin on grappling. Utilize wrestling techniques to dominate the mat with Chael Sonnen!
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