You gotta love Chael Sonnen

He might not have been the fighter people watched UFC 109 to see, but he was the fighter everyone was excited about after it was all over. I'm talking about Chael Sonnen. This guy totally opened my eyes on Saturday night. It's very possible he might be your next middleweight champ. We'll get into that in a minute.

I should pay lip service to Randy Couture before the Sonnen love-in begins. He did create quite a buzz with his second round submission win over Mark Coleman. But really? Why? Coleman wasn't in any one's top ten light heavyweight rankings before the fight. Neither was Couture for that matter. And Couture goes out and dominates a guy who's 45 years old. Yeah, yeah, Couture is old too. But big deal. Couture went out and won a fight he should have won. And yes, he might now be on some peoples top ten lists in that division. Good for Couture--but I really don't see him beating anyone in the top five.

Back to gushing about Sonnen. He was in most people's top ten discussion for middleweights heading into the fight. And now he's way way higher. I was totally surprised the way he was able to out-wrestle Marquardt. Sure, I know--Sonnen was a former alternate for the U.S. Olympic wrestling team. But often that doesn't mean much. We've seen talented guys like GSP out-wrestle some pretty decorated wrestlers. And Marquardt is scary well rounded. I didn't see Sonnen being able to impose his will on someone who just looked stronger. Heading in, I gave the wrestling advantage to Sonnen, but all others to Marquardt.

And yet, there was Sonnen on top of Marquardt for basically 14 minutes. Grounding and pounding away. At first I thought Marquardt would be able to turn things around at the beginning of round two when they were on their feet again. Nothing doing. More take-downs. Sonnen was full marks for the win--but he's also full marks for personality. I love what comes out of this guys mouth and it's why I'm going to follow him a whole lot closer.

After the fight Sonnen talked about how much it sucked to fight a great fighter like Marquardt, and how much he was just glad it was over. Even better was his comment about how much he likes--no, needs--to fight in the UFC:

"At the end of the day if you want to get to the top of the card in the UFC, you've got to fight tough guys. If you want to be a fighter and get in the cage and be a big deal at your local strip club, go to Showtime. If you want to fight real guys, this is the place to do it."

As Dana White retorted right after, I couldn't have said it better myself. And Sonnen is aware of his "way with words". He's trying to use them for the greater good. He's actually running for a political office right now. Yeah, no kidding--he might become Oregon's District 37 guy at the House of Representatives in Washington. He is running as the Republican candidate, which gives him a good chance of winning. The spot is currently held by an retiring Republican. I'm not sure he'll focus on "being the big deal at local strip clubs", but instead seems to have some firm ideas on what his community needs.

One guy that definitely won't vote for Sonnen (if he could) is middleweight champ Anderson Silva. Sonnen has spent almost as much time campaigning in Oregon as he has bad mouthing who many believe is the top pound for pound fighter in the world. That notion is, in fact, something of a joke to Sonnen. He sees Silva as the weaker--himself as the true "Alpha male". He's been spinning this message for months now--even before he was in the position he is now--lined up for a shot at Silva, if Silva gets through his fight with Vitor Belfort.

So now it seems there's a good chance Sonnen will get the chance to back up his words with his fists--and wrestling ability. I think it would be a very tough challenge for Silva. Yes, Silva is much better when it comes to stand-up. Hell, he's an artist when it comes to stand-up. But Sonnen is going to take him down. We've seen Silva struggle somewhat in the past when he's been taken down--see his fight with Travis Lutter. Sonnen could be a real tough match-up for Silva. Plus I'm starting to think I'm not that enamoured with Silva anymore.

Silva's fights lately have been boring. Boring because he dominated so much--or just boring because they've been boring. Remember his fight with Thales Leites? That's 25 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Personally, I'm with Sonnen when he says he thinks Belfort is the tougher guy and will beat Silva.

But I kinda hope he doesn't. I'd love to witness the war of words that will happen if Sonnen is to fight Silva. Like I said, Sonnen started it a long time ago. One of his best accusations is that Silva can speak perfect English, and that he only uses his translator because he doesn't enjoy the media, a la Pavel Bure. I've heard from several sources Silva can speak English. And if he really doesn't bother with our language because---well for any reason--then Sonnen is right and Silva is a prick. Though having said that, I've heard from those same sources, Silva is a pretty nice guy on a personal level. But whatever. I've also heard the 70's Canadiens were a group of great guys, but I'd still have given my left nut (or as it was at the time, my bicycle) to see them lose. They simply won too much.

And so I'm left to back Sonnen. Partly because of the way he fought Marquardt. Mostly because of his gift for the gab:

" I've had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that he's so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking."

And if Silva beats Belfort, there will be a lot of talking. And it's gonna be fun.


Next time: Holy Crap! I'll be reviewing the next UFC pay per view, number 110. Could it be the UFC is scheduling too many events, thus watering things down too much?