Chael Sonnen vs. Forrest Griffin II Targeted for December 29 Card
By Chris Leslie on August 14, 2012
The ambiguous “grudge weight fight” that former UFC middleweight number one contender Chael Sonnen appeared to be alluding to gained some clarity tonight. Sonnen will be moving up to light heavyweight to face former UFC light heavyweight champion Forrest Griffin on December 29. The move was announced on “UFC Tonight” on Fuel TV.
Sonnen, who lost for a second time to Anderson Silva at UFC 148, will be looking to start a title charge in a new division when he faces off with Griffin. The two previously met in the opening round of IFC: Global Domination’s one-night tournament, with Griffin finishing Sonnen via triangle choke in the first round.
Sonnen said of the matchup (via “UFC Tonight”):
“I’ve watched him win the world championship, I’ve watched him etch his name in stone as a guaranteed future Hall of Famer, you and I and the whole world together watched him be a large part of creating and changing the industry that we have today. He’s one guy Jon Jones hasn’t fought, he’s beat two world champions in his last three outings, and on December 29th I will be taking on Forrest Griffin.”
Sonnen made it clear that he was planning on making the TUF 1 champion the first stepping stone on his way to taking the UFC light heavyweight title belt, namely taking it from current champ Jon Jones:
“Sure I could go up to 205 and I could take Jon Jones’ belt away the same as I could take his candy on Halloween, he’s a little punk kid, I could snatch it away all I want, but there’s something to be said in sportsmanship for earning your shot, and on the 29th of December, I’m going to go through Forrest to do it.”
The December 29 card is expected to be headlined by a heavyweight title fight between champion Junior Dos Santos and Cain Velasquez in a rematch of their UFC on Fox 1 bout. The card is also one of two cards being eyed by UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson’s management for his bout with Nate Diaz.
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*yawn. One guy doesn’t belong in the division and the other doesn’t seem to want to fight anymore. I’m sure this will be on of the 6 ppvs that month that don’t sell worth a crap.
Actually, I think this December 29th card is also the target date for JDS vs Cain 2 so this may turn out to be a good card
I hope that chael beats the crap out of forrest, hes a complete douch bag for stealing Tito’s spot light in his last fight, something i’ll never forget
well if you remember correctly, Forrest was a class act after the fight, and acutally praised Tito for the performance they put on.. he even had the courtesy to do the post fight interview with Ortiz.. Forrest might have his moments, like when he storms out of the cage in frustration, but he always makes up for it.. i met him in Columbus in March, and he was one of the coolest fighters ive met.. and ive met quite a few.. before you knock on the guy, take note of what he has done for the sport, and his fans.
Forrest is one of the best guys you’ll ever meet as long as the media isn’t bugging him. Met him years ago, before I was writing, when he did a seminar at my old gym. Cool guy, just annoys/gets bored with the media fairly quickly.
Regardless of wat hes done for the sport or how cool he is when not hounded by the media or how hilarious his book is or how complimentary he was of tito during the interview wat he did to tito was still a douche move. Had he wanted to b a class act he would’ve done his interview and stepped aside and let tito have his last moment in the sun. Instead he jocks titos spot. My friend who was a huge fan of forrests and not a fan at all of titos even commented on how scummy it was for him to do that.
I’m actually kind of interested in this fight, they are both gamers with lots of heart but also want to see what happens if forrest loses considering dana wants him to retire. Is this forrest’s last chance in the ufc in dana’s eyes, kind of like tito’s was vs bader but then he won?
Dana has said wandy, bonnar, and griffin have lifetime contracts as long as they want so I doubt he’ll get cut if he loses
Yeah, he wont force him to retire. Look how long Liddell hung around for before getting hired as…what was his job?
Chuck is the Executive V.P. of Check-Collecting and International Travel.
I know it’s an outside link…sorry…i wonder if you guys can dig up some info on this
http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2012/08/14/jason_mayhem_miller_arrested_naked_in_church/
we know he was released now but we know what you know. The county cited the privacy act on the issue.
I don’t wanna see this at all. Only for personal reasons though, because I love both these guys and don’t wanna see either lose. But actually to the contrary this fight will help make this one of the biggest events of the year. It’s absolutely incorrect that Sonnen is too small for lhw . He’s a massive mw and will fit right in at 205. His wrestling and stamina is as good as anyone’s and good enough to beat Forrest and most lhws imo.
He is a massive MW but isnt Forrest a massive LHW, doesnt he cut from like 240.
chael via UD
Actually, Tito was pissed off that Forrest interviewed him instead of joe rogan. In the post fight press conference, Joe rogan was the first to interview him and tito wanted him to be the last. to me forrest interviewing tito was trying to take some of titos spot light, in my opinion. Dana white was also pissed off about the crap that forrest pulled and thats saying a lot seeing that he has not always been titos big fan.
I guess I don’t mind this fight and if chael wins he may get a title shot due to the lack of contenders at 205. Of course depending on how soon bones fights machida(assuming he beats Hendo).
That is NOT the matchup Chael was previously talking about nor was it any 205 matchup, hence “I don’t respect him enough TO CUT TO 185, I’ll meet him at a grudge weight of 200″…….why would he need to cut weight to 185 to fight a 205er???….Makes no sense people, he obviously was talking about a 185er
Anyways I like the matchup for a few reasons….I could see the winner of this match getting a title shot due to lack of contenders, even though a win over Chael at 205 or a winner over current Forrest shouldn’t warrant title shots, I still could see it happening & wouldn’t argue against it
Any word on Shogun’s next fight, which should be for #1 contender?….Gustaffson, Lil Nog, Rashad?
No word I’ve heard, but I think it should be suga. On the same token, we’ve already seen Bones vs shogun and rashad. Maybe Gustaffson gets thrown in the mix
Probably, but they will even be about the same size in there . Shogun v Gustaffson is for top contender. My guess is winner of Forrest and Sonnen will have to win at least one more fight first.
You guys need to lay off forrest and start thinking about titos big ass mouth. forrest may be my favorite but tito deserved it totally. if you guys remember that dana white wanted to beat the shit out of tito for running his mouth so honestly tito deserved what he got plus karma comes in all forms