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Chael Sonnen thinks he is the current UFC middleweight champion, as well as the greatest middleweight fighter of all-time. He’s got a tall mountain named Anderson Silva to climb before he gets even a few people to whisper that, but he does have all kinds of game.

The first part of this clip demonstrates why he can sell fights and has the best “mouth” in MMA.

MMA legend Bas Rutten quickly shatters Sonnen’s “parallel universe” theory by informing him that if his fight with Silva was a street fight, Sonnen would never have woke up. There is no tapping on the streets. So while Silva may have been beaten up by Sonnen, there is no mistaking that Silva is the true champion.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t want to see that rematch. We do, even more now that Sonnen has run through contender Brian Stann at UFC 136. You may not like Sonnen, but you have to admire his bravado and how he takes care of things in the cage. Dana White likes him because he sells plenty of sports tickets, but for the arena and for the pay-per-view.

There are definitely other contenders out there in the division, but nothing as remotely appealing as Silva vs. Sonnen II. There’s the winner of Bisping vs. Mayhem, Vitor Belfort, Mark Munoz, maybe even Tim Kennedy, but if you polled both fighters and fans I’m guessing about 90% would rather see Sonnen get the shot before any of those other guys.

So while Silva’s manager Ed Soares says that Sonnen had his shot and now he can go to the back to the line, it’s only fair to point out what the fans want. And the fact that Sonnen beat the champ up until getting choked out. Sonnen deserves it.

So Anderson Silva and Ed Soares — as one Mr. Nick Diaz so famously said, “Don’t be scared, homie”.