by King Hazard
Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen will finally settle their differences at Bellator 180. A rivalry which began over three years ago in the UFC following Sonnen’s disrespectful comments towards Brazilians, and the legendary Nogueira brothers.
Silva, 40, was initially scheduled to fight Sonnen after the fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil in 2014, but due to issues with out-of-competition drug tests on both sides the match never came to fruition. In 2016, Silva requested to be released from the UFC and then signed with Bellator MMA. Now both fighters are officially scheduled to meet inside the Bellator cage in June.
With the light heavyweight grudge match still two months away, the Brazilian MMA veteran recently promised to beat up Sonnen in his 50th fight.
Silva said in a video via Facebook,
I’m happy to announce to you that my next fight is done for Bellator 180, against Sonnen, an old rivalry that will finally be settled, I have 49 fights and I really wanted to do this 50th fight, but more than that, it had to be with him. I was going to fight ‘Cro Cop’ (Mirko Filipovic) at the end of the year, but I couldn’t recover. But the 50th fight, I really wanted it to be against him, and it will. And I will beat him up.
Bellator NYC: Sonnen vs. Silva is scheduled to take place on June 24, 2017 at the Madison Square Garden in New York City. The event will air on PPV and not on Spike TV this time.
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