Chael Sonnen is a genius (I think)

It has been a long time since I have been interested in a UFC card and it follows that I did not watch last Saturday's pay per view UFC 136.  It also has been a long time since middleweight Chael Sonnen has fought in the Octagon but Sonnen made up for the lost time with both his dominating performance against opponent Brian Stann and his post-fight comments that were directed at current UFC middleweight champion (and arguably the current best pound for pound MMA fighter in the world) Anderson Silva.  The last time Sonnen was in an MMA fight was 14 months ago at UFC 117 when he was well on his way to handily beating Silva before the champion was able to submit the challenger via triangle choke in a shocking turn of events during the final seconds of their title fight.   The long delay between Sonnen's UFC fights was due to post-fight drug tests that showed he had an elevated testosterone level prior to his fight with Silva.  At UFC 136 Sonnen made short work of Stann and took even less time to set his sights on his rival challenging Silva to what seemingly amounts to a loser leaves town match.

Sonnen never seemed to be the type who is at a loss for words and his big mouth helped turn his first fight against Silva into a must see event.  Sonnen wasted no time in selling his rematch to the fans and press as immediately after his win over Stann he told Silva who was sitting at ringside, "I beat you, you leave the division. You beat me, I leave the UFC forever.” Sonnen continued to hype the potential rematch with Silva in the post-fight press conference stating that he was the true middleweight champion and that his victory over Stann was his first title defense.  Sonnen claimed that his challenge to Silva was a "spur of the moment" decision but if Sonnen did indeed plan his challenge then he is far more than just an idiot with a big mouth but quite possibly a brilliant strategist.

In some parallel universe, you can hit a man 300 times and he wraps his legs around your head for eight seconds and they call him the winner. On the streets of West Linn, Oregon, those are not the rules. I am the middleweight champion. I defended my championship tonight for the first time and I am willing to give Anderson a shot at the true belt, the linear belt, the people’s belt, from the best damn middleweight there’s ever been. -- Sonnen

Although Sonnen is a good fighter who's strong wrestling style matches up as well against Silva as any other middleweight in the world, it was clearly obvious that Sonnen's trash talking before their first fight did indeed get inside Silva's head and judging by the fight Sonnen's big mouth definitely did not hurt him and might have had a desirable effect on the champion's mindset during the fight.  That kind of shock and awe taunting worked the first time because it probably caught Silva off guard but I doubt those taunts would work the second time around.  Quite simply, Sonnen needed to up the ante to get inside Silva's head again and this "loser leaves town" stipulation does seem to do that.

Because of fan interest, Sonnen was going to get his rematch against Silva with or without his stipulation however now Silva has to accept Sonnen's challenge or else he will look like a huge wuss.  After all, the pound for pound best fighter in the world should not be scared of a stipulation coming from an inferior opponent like Sonnnen whom he already has beaten before. At first glance Sonnen seems to have the most to lose as he is putting up his UFC career against only Silva's middleweight career.  According to Sonnen if he loses then he leaves the company whereas if Silva loses then he just has to leave the middleweight division. 

Motivation wise it looks like Sonnen should have more than Silva as the latter has already successfully fought at a higher weight class against Forrest Griffin and James Irvin.  Basically with this challenge Sonnen is giving Silva an out.  Silva has already beaten everybody in his weight class and a huge mega fight with light heavyweight champion Jon Jones seems to be close on his radar.  If Silva loses then he just moves up and fights in the biggest MMA bout of all time.  It is almost like it is okay for Silva to lose because there are bigger and better things ahead.  Sonnen's stipulation also makes it very unlikely that he will go out and try to dominate Silva for all five rounds like he did in the first fight.  Perhaps in the rematch if Sonnen is winning the first four rounds like in the first fight he will just do the lay and pray for the final round instead of trying to finish his opponent.  Lastly, Sonnen is a liar and there is good reason to believe that he will not honor his side of the stipulation.  Sonnen has put his foot in his mouth before and acted like nothing has happened.  It would not surprise me at all if Sonnen has no intentions of quitting the UFC were he to lose to Silva again. 

Silva claimed that he had a rib cage injury that affected his performance in the first Sonnen-Silva championship fight.  Even a wounded Silva still posed enough of a threat to an elevated testosterone Sonnen to submit the challenger in the final seconds of their fight.  I am not saying that with Sonnen's challenge he automatically becomes the favorite in their rematch (depending on Silva's health could happen on Super Bowl weekend) but I can definitely see it improving his chances (however small they might be).  Sonnen was able to get inside Silva's head in the first fight and I see this stipulation as the former's calculated attempt at trying to recreate that chaos that seemed to help him in the first fight.  Sonnen might be an ass but this challenge makes me think that despite his previous asinine comments he is not necessarily a dumbass.