Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (21-5 MMA, 4-2 UFC) is injured and out of next week’s UFC 161 co-headliner with light heavyweight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (21-7 MMA, 5-5 UFC), but one familiar name has offered his services as a replacement.
And Chael Sonnen (27-13-1 MMA, 6-6 UFC) did it in the only way he knows how.
“@ShogunRua I HEAR BRAZILIAN CHICKEN IS OFF THE MENU. AMERICAN GANGSTER IS STILL AVAILABLE IF YOU WANT TO SEND YOUR WAITRESS OVER,” he wrote via Twitter.
As MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) reported Sunday, Nogueira was forced off the June 15 card with a back injury. Officials haven’t formally announced the scratch as of Monday morning.
UFC 161 takes place at MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The main card, including Rua’s bout, airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FX and Facebook.
Although Sonnen was criticized when he was given a shot at Jon Jones‘ light-heavyweight title earlier this year after coming off a loss to middleweight champ Anderson Silva, the Rua matchup doesn’t seem too farfetched. Sonnen, who’s 0-4 in Zuffa title fights, is still one of the world’s best middleweights, but following the TKO loss to Jones, he said he planned to remain at 205 pounds instead of dropping back down to 185.
Against Rua, he’d face one of the UFC’s more inconsistent top-level fighters. The former UFC champ, who’s ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA light-heavyweight rankings, hasn’t put together back-to-back wins in more than four years. However, since joining the UFC in 2007, he’s faced one notable fighter after another. Recently, wins have come over the likes of Lyoto Machida, Forrest Griffin and Brandon Vera while losses have come to Alexander Gustafsson, Dan Henderson and Jones.
For the latest on UFC 161, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.
(Pictured: Chael Sonnen)
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