Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen 3 Is Official (And How Terry Crews Is Involved)

MMAFighting- Anderson Silva will face Chael Sonnen in a boxing match July 15 in Brazil, Spaten Fight Night announced Sunday on Globo’s Fantastico. The promotion did not reveal if it will be a professional or exhibition match, nor the weight class and number of rounds.

The match is being promoted as the “grand finale” of Silva’s combat sports career after 46 MMA bouts and six boxing contests between pro and exhibition bouts, however Silva declined to confirm whether or not he will retire after the match. Silva’s professional boxing record stands at 3-2 going into the event.

I may be exposed as a hypocrite here, because I'll roll my eyes at a fight like Jorge Masvidal vs Nate Diaz 2 happening in the squared circle this Summer and question "Who asked for this?" while preaching that it should be an MMA bout - but I'll read Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen are boxing each other in less than a month and my immediate reaction is: "Fuck it, I'm in. I don't even care that it's boxing."

This news really came out of nowhere tonight - but not more than Anderson Silva's original opponent "announcement" did this morning….

I can't tell you how confused I was to wake up to the news that Anderson Silva was boxing Terry Crews in the "grand finale" of his combat sports career. I felt like I was still dreaming and had to rub my eyes to read the headlines over again. Like a flashbang just went off in my brain and I needed a quick reboot to compute that. It just felt like an AI generated sentence that didn't quite add up - and obviously, it wasn't real after all. I assume they just paid Terry Crews to help out with the marketing while they built anticipation for the real opponent announcement? Kind of a strange move, but it got the people talking, so god bless 'em.

Why am I so "in" for this, though? Simply because Chael Sonnen is the perfect opponent for Anderson Silva here. He's Anderson's greatest rival - and Anderson vs Chael is arguably the greatest rivalry in MMA history, on top of that. They shared a pair of great, classic fights and hours of trash talk, and you can't tell the story of either man's career without the other. 

Josh Hedges. Getty Images.

Hell, their first fight is gonna be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame less than two weeks after this fight! Chael coming out of retirement to (possibly) send Anderson into retirement feels like something that'd only happen in Hollywood - or the WWE!  

This would be like The Rock announcing he's doing one more match, and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin returning to face him. It's not gonna be as fast-paced a fight as it once was, but they'll run back the classic insults like they're on a greatest hits tour during the build up and make you feel nice and nostalgic for what once was. I'm almost always down for that. 

I say "(possibly)" send Silva into retirement because according to Guilherme Cruz, he hasn't actually confirmed he's retiring after this despite the being promoted as his "grand finale".

Speaking of the build up, though - how long have these guys known about this fight?! It's happening in less than a month and we don't know the weight, amount of rounds, whether or not it's an exhibition….are they even training yet?! Are they doing a press tour? Are we gonna get The Bad Guy back on the mic in Brazil before this one goes down?! 

Here's 4+ minutes of him insulting the country for those who don't know their Chael history….

I'm honestly really excited to hear when/how this all came together, what the biggest factor in Chael's decision to return was, and what the rules of the bout are. I'm sure he'll have a breakdown video on his YouTube channel soon. For now, though - count me in. 

Check out one of our old interviews with Chael below….