10 Things MMA Fans Should Know About The Chael Sonnen Vs. Wanderlei Silva Rivalry

Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva is one of the greatest rivalries in MMA history. With both men being Hall of Fame talents who had bad blood, they had fought in, and out of the cage. Their rivalry spanned two promotions, and after multiple postponements in the UFC, they finally fought in 2017 in Bellator.

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With so many twists and turns in their long rivalry, there may be some things that fans have forgotten or don't know about the rivalry between 'The American Gangster' and 'The Axe Murderer'. Let's take a look at 10 things that fans should know about the Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva rivalry.

10 Silva Wanted To Fight Sonnen As A Result Of His Brazilian Trash Talk

Chael Sonnen's rivalry with high-profile Brazilian figures such as Anderson Silva and the Nogueira brothers led him to upset a whole nation. Sonnen notably insulted Brazil various times across the years, and that upset a lot of people, none more than Wanderlei Silva.

'The Axe Murderer' took it upon himself to beat up Sonnen for his home country. In 2014, he began a war of words with Sonnen, and Sonnen naturally answered back which led to the two men being booked to be coaches for The Ultimate Fighter.

9 They Had One Of The Biggest TUF Seasons Ever

The Ultimate Fighter has always been home to some of the biggest rivalries in MMA. Fights such as Rashad Evans vs. Rampage Jackson were built through the show and went on to do massive numbers. One such fight that benefitted from TUF was Wanderlei Silva vs. Chael Sonnen.

The two men coached the third season of TUF: Brazil, and it went on to be one of the best seasons in the show's history. While there were great fighters that came out of the season such as Paulo Costa, the most remembered moment wasn't a scene of fighting in the cage.

8 Silva And Sonnen Brawled On The TUF Set

The Ultimate Fighter has had various crazy moments in the show's run over the years. However, few things were as wild as when Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen get into an all-out brawl in episode six.

Before the weigh-ins for one of the bouts, Silva and Sonnen got into an argument. Silva threatened to slap Sonnen, and Sonnen responded with a shove. Silva tried to respond with a right hook but was taken down and both men began throwing punches from the ground before being separated.

During the brawl, one of Silva's coaches Andre Amade went behind Sonnen and began punching him in the back of the head. He was promptly kicked off the show by Dana White.

7 Their Fight Was Shifted Around Many Times

Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen's grudge match was moved several different times. The fight was first targeted for UFC 173, then it was targeted for the finals of TUF Brazil 3. The fight was cancelled and moved from the Brazil card to UFC 175 after Silva hurt his hand while punching Sonnen during their on-air fight.

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The fight was finally set for one of the biggest cards of the year in UFC 175, headlined by Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida. However, it naturally didn't happen. Little did fans know, the fight wouldn't happen for four years past its original date.

6 Wanderlei Silva Was Replaced With Vitor Belfort

Wanderlei Silva once again was pulled from the fight with Sonnen and was promptly replaced with fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort. The main reason that the fight was officially pulled after so many postponements was that Silva ran into some trouble with the Nevada State Athletic Commission pre-fight.

Silva, according to the athletic commission refused to take a pre-fight random drug test. As a result, the fight was pulled, and he was put on indefinite suspension.

5 Chael Also Had Drug Test Issues

Chael Sonnen has notably had more juice in him than Tropicana and had multiple failed drug tests on several occasions. This is why he'd be pulled from the fight with Vitor Belfort.

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Sonnen was pulled from his bout with Belfort, due to him failing his random pre-fight drug test. Both Silva and Sonnen being pulled from the bout due to drug tests is honestly really funny, but sadly put the fight on ice for years.

4 The Fight Seemed Dead In The Water

It's easy to forget because it seemed like fate that the two men would clash, but it nearly didn't happen. In fact, both Sonnen and Silva, despite being scheduled to fight in July 2014, would both be in a retirement stage as a result of their drug test failures.

Sonnen retired after his failure, as well as his suspension from the athletic commission. Silva, on the other hand, didn't officially retire but was nearly forced into retirement by Nevada after being handed down a lifetime suspension from MMA. Thankfully, the suspension was reversed the following year.

3 They Both Signed To Bellator After Their Suspensions

In a predictable move, both men came out of retirement in order to make the fight happen. However, the fight didn't happen with the UFC. No, instead it came with the second-largest MMA promotion in the world, Bellator MMA.

Sonnen's first bout in the promotion didn't go well against Tito Ortiz after losing a first-round submission. There must have been something that Silva saw in the fight that enticed him to unretire for one more bout.

2 They Main-Evented A Rare Bellator PPV

Despite Bellator being the second-largest MMA promotion on the planet, they've never had much interest in doing pay-per-view events. The first one was Bellator 120 in 2014, the stacked show featured a grudge match between Rampage Jackson vs. King Mo, as well as other names like Tito Ortiz and Michael Chandler. Despite the name power, the event did poorly on PPV, leading Bellator to not attempt any more events like it for three years.

However, in 2017, they knew they had to put Bellator NYC on PPV. The main event was the long-awaited grudge match between Silva and Sonnen and also saw Fedor Emelinaneko make his promotional debut in the co-main. While the event only did 130,000 PPV buys, it's still one of the highest-grossing events in the company's history.

1 Chael Sonnen Dominated The Fight

In 2017, we finally got to see Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva, and it wasn't exactly what fans expected. The dream fight was dominated by Sonnen, as he scored takedowns in all three rounds, winning via a unanimous decision on the cards.

In his post-fight interview, Sonnen was shoved by Silva as the latter exited the cage. Despite the feud being over in the cage, these two will likely always hate one another.