Report: Chael Sonnen Gets Fight with Shogun Rua at UFC 161

When the news broke that Antonio Rogerio Nogueira had suffered a back injury forcing him out of the scheduled rematch with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 161, Chael Sonnen offered to step up as his replacement.

Sonnen took to Twitter to lobby for the bout late Sunday evening.

@shogunrua I HEAR BRAZILIAN CHICKEN IS OFF THE MENU. AMERICAN GANGSTER IS STILL AVAILABLE IF YOU WANT TO SEND YOUR WAITRESS OVER.

— chael sonnen (@sonnench) June 3, 2013

Brazilian website Combate.com reported on Monday that Sonnen has indeed been named Nogueira’s replacement and will face Rua on the June 15 fight card.

The fight, however, is not confirmed.  According to MMAWeekly.com content partner Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole, the match-up is only in the discussion phase.

Iole spoke with UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta who said the fight is not confirmed, but ”we are having that discussion.”

Rua (21-7) is coming off a decision loss to Alexander Gustafsson on Dec. 8, 2012.

Sonnen (27-13-1) has lost back to back title fights in his last two outings, losing to middleweight titleholder Anderson Silva at UFC 148 and to light heavyweight champion Jon Jones on April 27.

UFC 161 takes place at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on June 15 and is headlined by a light heavyweight match-up between former champion Rashad Evans and Dan Henderson.