Chael Sonnen doubts Anderson Silva returns: “I don’t think we’ll see him fight again”

MMA analyst Chael Sonnen believes that former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, his long-time archrival, will never fight again.

Sonnen and Silva were part of a memorable rivalry in the early 2010s. The two met at UFC 117 and, after Sonnen dominated the first four rounds of the fight, Silva came back to win in the fifth round by submission. They then fought in a rematch at UFC 148, with Silva winning via second-round TKO. The rivalry between the two was heated at the time but in recent years both men have become much more cordial with one another, and are basically friends now.

As Silva’s friend, Sonnen offered the hard truth about his current aspirations to fight again. After the UFC released Silva following a knockout loss to Uriah Hall, multiple other MMA promotions such as Bellator, PFL, and ONE Championship have come out and said they aren’t interested in Silva’s services. If you ask Sonnen, the fact so many promotions have come out and turned him down already is a sign that Silva will never fight again. If no promotion wants him, then he can’t fight.

Chael Sonnen doesn't think Anderson Silva will fight again with promotions refusing to sign him

Full interview via @fanaticsview https://t.co/Wf7wQjyKBf pic.twitter.com/FAvAugXn4b

— James Lynch (@LynchOnSports) November 26, 2020

“No, I don’t think we’ll see him fight again because I think those promotions are telling the truth. And I think there’s a much better way of going about it than the way that he went about it. I don’t think you should come out and just offer your services somewhere. I think that you should have a finished product. He should have found a very specific opponent, taken it to the audience first, to make sure the audience wanted it, then added some flames to it, and then dropped it,” Sonnen told MMA journalist James Lynch of FanaticsView.

Essentially, what Sonnen is saying is that Silva should have spoken to an organization such as ONE Championship, for instance, with a detailed plan about fighting someone such as Vitor Belfort after a social media campaign. Instead, these promotions have come out and said already that they aren’t interested, leaving Silva in a tough position going forward with so few suitors for him now.

Having said that, while many of these promotions have said no to Silva, there are still a few out there that could be interested. For instance, RIZIN FF makes sense as a home for Silva. Right now it looks like Sonnen is probably right and Silva doesn’t fight again, but it just takes one promotion to book him for a fight.

Do you agree with Chael Sonnen that Anderson Silva will never fight again?