Chael Sonnen defeated Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision at Bellator NYC inside Madison Square Garden Saturday night, and the 40-year-old immediately got to working on setting up his next fight after the victory.
Sonnen hit Silva with a number of punches and was able to take him down in all three rounds, earning a 30-27 score in his favor from two judges and 30-26 from the other. When the bout was over, Sonnen trolled the fans in New York City and called out Tito Ortiz and Fedor Emelianenko, who was knocked out by Matt Mitrione earlier in the night.
#BellatorNYC ends with @ChaelSonnen as the winner & here's what the 'Bad Guy' had to say! pic.twitter.com/IkfeaZoA1z
— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) June 25, 2017
Sonnen, who is 2-4 in his past six fights, retired from the UFC after a two-year doping suspension in 2014 and returned to sign a contract with Bellator last year. He has bad blood with a number of other fighters, which was evident when Ortiz was jawing at him from outside the cage before Saturday’s fight.
Tito Ortiz is jawing at Chael Sonnen from outside the cage. #BellatorNYC pic.twitter.com/crcZ2AQURb
— Josh Sánchez (@jnsanchez) June 25, 2017
Ortiz actually defeated Sonnen by submission back in January, but there has been some question about whether Ortiz tapped out in the first round and the referee missed it. Sonnen obviously feels that was the case.
In all fairness, Tito did tap to the Bad Guy https://t.co/d8ebpDhC8L
— El Jefe (@Simitakhar) June 25, 2017
While speaking with reporters after his win over Silva, Sonnen was not quite as critical of Emelianenko.
“I respect Fedor, and I think he and I’s paths are going to cross sooner rather than later,” Sonnen said, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com.
Sonnen has always been one of the most outspoken fighters in MMA, and Ortiz’s ex-girlfriend could tell you all about that. Win, lose, or draw, he’s always going to talk like he’s the greatest fighter of all time.
