The boxing bug has bit two former UFC rivals as Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will do battle for a third time — only this time in the ring vs. the cage.
The news was revealed Sunday night, coming on the same day Silva denied he would be fighting actor Terry Crews. It’s being promoted as the “grand finale” of Silva’s career even though he has declined to answer whether he will retire.
12 days before their first fight is inducted into the UFC hall of fame, Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen will meet again, this time in a boxing match. pic.twitter.com/rfuld9Aavh
The two will clash on Saturday, June 15th in Brazil, but the rules are unknown as is whether it will be a pro or exhibition bout. It will come nearly two weeks before their first UFC fight is inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
The 49-year-old Silva (3-2) has boxed professionally three times since retiring from the UFC, picking up wins over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Tito Ortiz before losing to Jake Paul in September 2022. While the 47-year-old Sonnen has trained in boxing before, he has never competed in boxing professionally.
The two fought twice before in the Octagon with Silva picking up both victories.
Jake Paul emerged victorious Saturday night, defeating Anderson Silva in a boxing match.
Paul won the fight by unanimous decision, with judges scoring the contest 77-74, 78-73, and 78-73. The two fought a competitive back and forth match, with Silva being knocked down in the eighth and final round.
In the post-fight interview, Paul took the time to call out Nate Diaz, calling him a “bi***”, claiming that Diaz had attempted to enter his locker room before leaving the arena. He told Diaz to fight him. He called out Canelo Alvarez as well, saying if he can beat a legend like Silva, he could beat Canelo.
Anderson thanked everyone for coming and said sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. He will continue to train hard as he was born for this and thanked God. He had nothing bad to say about Paul and said he will go back to Brazil to compete in a jiu-jitsu tournament.
Jake’s brother, Logan, signed a WWE contract earlier this year. He is scheduled to face Roman Reigns in a match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at Crown Jewel next Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Double or Nothing is the lead story in the new issue of the Wrestling Observer. Match-by-match coverage, star ratings, poll results, surprising PPV numbers and reasons why it happened, the atmosphere, what did and didn’t work and the signing of Mark Henry and the situation with Lio Rush.
Also in this issue:
WWE front office hires, their background, the shift in company strategy an how they fit in, as well as the reasons for the controversy regarding Jamie Horowitz and what happened when he was at FOX.
WWE cutting of Braun Strowman, Lana, Ruby Riott, Aleister Black, Murphy and Santana Garrett, reasons all were let go as well as the future prospects for all of them individually.
WWE schedule going forward, with the shows through September, the exclusive first word on plans for NXT going on the road, and a SummerSlam update.
New Japan/WWE talks, the history of Vince McMahon and booking of WWF talent in Japan when working with the Japanese, next Takeover show, more firings, U.K. and Canadian ratings, next week’s TV show and most-watched WWE videos.
A major feature on the life of 60s and 70s star Tony Marino, from his bodybuilding days to his start in wrestling, his international tours, the Battman gimmick from the Batman TV show, his biggest career shows, being part of setting the all-time indoor pro wrestling gate record for North America in 1970 and more.
More detail on ratings than any other source, how every segment on NXT and AEW did with different age groups and more, all other wrestling shows of the past week, how many different viewers the shows had which is very different from the television number, breakdown of who watches the shows, how they watch, DVR numbers and how long the average fan watches.
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FRIDAY NEWS UPDATE
Garrett Gonzalez and I will be talking about all the news of the week such as WWE hirings and firings, tonight’s TV, AEW business and more with Wrestling Observer Radio. Bryan and I will be doing a show on Saturday night this weekend as well.
Regarding the move of the Kenny Omega vs. Jungle Boy match from the scheduled 6/11 Dynamite show to 6/26, Tony Khan said he decided he wanted the match to air live (6/11 and 6/18 are taped shows) and wanted to make 6/26 a major show.
We don’t have more details but NXT did 668,000 viewers on Tuesday. We’ll have the rest of the numbers in the next issue.
Smackdown tonight at 8 p.m. on FOX:
Apollo Crews vs. Kevin Owens IC title
Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs. Usos for Smackdown tag titles
Bianca Belair will issue a challenge to Bayley
For 205 Live: Austin Grey vs. Ariya Daivari and Ari Sterling vs. Sunil Singh
AEW Dynamite tonight at 10 p.m. on TNT:
Mark Henry, The Inner Circle, Britt Baker, Sting and Darby Allin aer on the show
Red Velvet vs. The Bunny
Cody Rhodes & Lee Johnson vs. QT Marshall & Anthony Agogo
Dustin Rhodes vs. Nick Comoroto bullrope match
Jungle Boy & Christian Cage vs. Private Party
Young Bucks vs. Penta & Pac non-title match
New Japan Strong at 10 p.m. tonight on New Japan World:
Kevin Knight vs. TJP
Adrian Quest vs. Barrett Brown
Satoshi Kojima & Karl Fredericks vs. Danny Limelight & JR Kratos
The celebrity boxing business isn’t looking good based on PPV advance numbers. Granted, most buys are done the day or or day after, but for the shows this weekend based on numbers we received from one significant provider, Odom vs. Carter is dead in the water, NWA When Our Shadows fall is at 6.7 percent of where the AEW show was on the Friday before, and here’s the scary one, Mayweather vs. Paul is at 69 percent of where the AEW show was two days out. Yes, based on advance television PPV buys, it is actually trailing. Of course almost all buys are day or show and right after.
UFC tomorrow on ESPN+ starting at 4 p.m. Eastern:
Claudio Puelles (155) vs. Jordan Leavitt (156)
Sean Woodson (145) vs. Youssef Zalal (146)
Manon Fiorit (125.5) vs. Tabatha Ricci (124.5)
Alan Patrick (154.5) vs. Mason Jones (156)
Makwan Amirkhani (146) vs. Kamuela Kirk (146)
Francisco Trinaldo (169.5) vs. Muslim Salikhov (171)
Tanner Boser (242) vs. Ilir Latifi (240)
Montana de la Rosa (126) vs. Ariane Lipski (124.5)
Tom Breese (186) vs. Antonio Arroyo (186)
Dusko Todorovic (186) vs. Gregory Rodrigues (186)
Santiago Ponzinibbio (170.5) vs. Miguel Baeza (171)
Roman Dolidze (186) vs. Laureano Starpoli (185)
Walt Harris (264) vs. Marcin Tybura (251)
Jairzinho Rozenstruik (254) vs. Augusto Sakai (255.5)
After announcing him for the new season that starts on 7/10 in Philadelphia last night, MLW announces Aramis has signed a multi-year deal with the promotion today.
Here is the complete Josh Alexander vs. TJP 60:00 match from last night’s Impact with no commercial interruptions. Alexander and TJP are looking at touring their match on independent shows, doing various gimmick matches like Iron Man, 2/3 falls, X Division title matches as well as meet and greets and seminars. For more info you can contact Dave Penzer at [email protected]
Impact sold out the few tickets they put on sale for Slammiversary on 7/17 in Nashville.
CyberFight Festival takes place Sunday morning at Midnight on Wrestle Universe and there will be English language announcing with Stewart Fulton and Mark Pickering. It’s from the Saitama Super Arena and is a multi-promotional show. The top matches have Keiji Muto defending the GHC title against Naomichi Marufuji, Jun Akiyama defending the KO-D title against Harashima, Miyu Yamashita defending the Princess of Princess championship against Yuka Sakazaki and Konosuke Takeshita & Yuki Ueno vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura.
Arena Mexico will be able to increase capacity from 500 to 1,500 on 6/24. They will also start doing weekly Sunday shows in the building to go with the Friday and Tuesday shows. The first Sunday date is 6/13.
AAA’s Verano de Escandalo show, its version of SummerSlam, is set for 7/3.
UFC
The Uriah Hall vs. Sean Strickland fight that was set for the August PPV has been moved up to the main event for a 7/31 show.
The Cage Fury Fighting Championships, which is the MMA group that C.M. Punk announces for, will be starting up a grappling division with the first show on 7/1 in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena called Fury Professional Grappling with both gi and no gi matches. The next MMA show is 7/3in Philadelphia with welterweight champion Evan Cutts (12-4) facing Yohan Lainesse (6-0) for the title.
NFC has announced a 6/12 show in Anderson, SC at Electric City MMA and 6/25 in Buford,GA at Tannery Row before returning with a Jiu Jitsu show on 6/26 at District Atlanta and an MMA show on 7/24 at District Atlanta.
Invicta on 6/11 with have The Phoenix tournament, with eight 105-pound women, Jessica Delboni, Jillian DeCoursey, Katie Perez, Katie Saull, Lindsey VanZandt, Linda Mihalec, Paulina Granados and Tabatha Watkins that will air live on AXS TV from Memorial Hall in Kansas City. The winner of the tournament will get a shot at the Invicta title. The show will have open scoring, meaning fans and athletes will know the score of the fight after every round.
Jeff Jarrett will do a live show on 6/12 from Jimmy’s Famous Seafood in Baltimore.
Legacy Fighting tonight on UFC Fight Pass at 9 p.m. Eastern from Shawnee, OK
Manuel Medina (125) vs. Kevin Fernandez (126)
Jacobi Jones (156) vs. Caleb Hall (156)
Gerrica Trias (125) vs. Ky Bennett (124.5)
Edwin Cooper Jr. (145.6) vs. Robson Jr. (145.2)
Askar Askar (136) vs. Justin Wetzell (136)
Terrance Mckinney (160) vs. Michael Irizarry (160)
Latin Urban Superstar Farruko will perform on the 6/19 Triller PPV at Loan Depot Park in Miami joining Meek Mill, Myka Towers, Snoop Dogg and Reggaeton performer Lunay in a concert prior the Triller boxing PPV.
After a gym fist fight angle between Real Tarzann Mike Holston and Vitor Belfort, they have been added to the Triller PPV show.
Conor McGregor is getting into the mobile gaming business with European mobile games developer Beetroot Lab for a game called Dystopia: Content of Heroes.
Daisuke Sekimoto and Yasufumi Nakanoue of Big Japan have been pulled from Wednesday’s All Japan show due to a Big Japan COVID outbreak. Yoshitatsu is also off the show due to traveling to the U.S. for non-business reasons.
Galli promotions on Sunday in Villa Park, IL has Black Taurus vs. Laredo Kid and Are & Aramis vs. Gringo Loco & Golden Dragon.
Game Changer Wrestling runs Saturday at 3 p.m. with Tournament of Survival
