Yahoo: Sonnen backs up talk, earns himself a title shot

Clark Kent

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02-07-2010 01:12 AM:Chael Sonnen is in the top five in MMA. That's just with his ability to trash talk. Now he's backing it up with his fighting.

Sonnen, one of the best wrestling fighters in MMA, physically mauled the very powerful Nate Marquardt on his way to a huge upset in the co-main event at UFC 109. Sonnen ate some big shots to score takedown after takedown and then brutalized Marquardt on the ground with elbows and punches to take a unanimous decision, 30-27 on all cards.

A humble Sonnen said he was hurt early and he was in survival mode for much of the fight.

"It was horrible. He hurt me very early. I was hurt from the first round. I just had to hang in there."

It didn't appear Sonnen was the one in trouble. Marquardt took roughly 12 minutes of abuse on his back. Sonnen's gas tank was excellent. He only ran into real trouble in the final two minutes of the fight, when Marquardt caught his head and slapped on a tight guillotine choke at the 1:55 mark. Sonnen has fallen victim to some bad submission losses in the past, but he wasn't about blow this one.

"It was very tight. I was counting the seconds down in my head hoping he'd let me go."

Sonnen freed his head after 22 seconds in Marquardt's grip and made it to the end of the fight.

If UFC president Dana White honors his prefight words, Sonnen gets the winner of the UFC 112 tilt between middleweight champ Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort. Sonnen has been hunting Silva verbally for two years now. If he gets Silva, the trash talk before the fight could be of epic proportions. Sonnen has said repeatedly that Silva, ranked No. 1 in the Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound poll, is overrated.

Sonnen (25-10, 3-3 UFC) is now 10-2 at middleweight. Marquardt, who's been waiting since UFC 73 for another shot at Anderson Silva's title, has to hope someone knocks him off in his next two fights or the champ leaves the division and jumps to 205 pounds. Otherwise, he may be two years away from a shot.



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