Chael Sonnen sent fight fans on social media into a frenzy after ‘The American Gangster’ posted a series of images that showed him getting a tattoo of Anderson Silva on his arm.
The post immediately went viral with fans wondering if the tattoo on Silva’s arm was legit.
“I’m a man of my wrote,” Sonnen wrote in the caption.
Two days later, fans were finally given some context as to why Sonnen would get a tattoo of his rival. As it turns out, the post was done in conjunction with the release of Silva’s docu-series which released Thursday on Paramount+. In a video posted on Silva’s Instagram, the two UFC icons watch the series together, but not before making a bet. If Sonnen at any point gets emotional while watching the series, he has to get inked up.
Sonnen agrees and inevitably loses.
“@spiderandersonsilva challenged @sonnench to watch #AndersonSpiderSilva, my new series, without shedding a tear. And as you can see… he lost badly.”
Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen Engaged in One of the UFC’s Greatest Rivalries
Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen met inside the Octagon on two separate occasions, the first coming at UFC 117 in August 2010. Through four-and-a-half rounds, ‘The American Gangster’ dominated Silva on the canvas, taking him down at will and controlling each round from bell to bell. Sonnen found himself less than two minutes away from claiming the UFC middleweight championship when Silva managed to secure a hail mary triangle choke that forced Sonnen to tap out with 1:50 left on the clock.
They ran it back two years later at UFC 148 with Silva ending things much more decisively, earning a second-round TKO.
Sonnen has since traded in his four-ounce gloves for a career as an MMA analyst while Anderson Silva continues to compete in the world of boxing.
Relive Sonnen and Silva’s first meeting below:
