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Biography

Chael Sonnen (born April 3 , 1977) is an American MMA fighter who has an excellent career fighting for 15 years now. He fights in the UFC middleweight division and has score 25-11-1. He was an NCAA Division I All-American wrestler at the University of Oregon, a two-time University Greco national champion as well as the 85.0 kg silver medalist at the 2000 Greco-Roman World University Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

Sonnen started his MMA carrer at age of 19 , with a score 6-0 in his first six fights. In his first fight he defeated Ben Hailey in Vancouver , Washington at event called "Battle of Fort Vancouver". His second fight was in Anza , California against Jason Mayhem Miller future ICON Sport Middleweight Champion and Strikeforce Middleweight contender.

After earning score 14-6-1 in his first 21 fights , it was time to join the fastest growing MMA organization UFC.

UFC
Sonnen's debut in the UFC didn't go too well. He had three fights , of which two were lost . In his first UFC fight he faced former IFC and Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Renato Sobral at UFC 55 , which was his first fight in light heavyweight division. After good standup round he lost fight on the floor by a triangle choke. In the next fight he defeated Trevor Prangley at UFC event called UFC Ultimate Fight Night 4. His third and last fight in UFC was against Jeremy Horn at UFC 60 were Sonnen lost via Armbar.

Bodog Fight
After leaving the UFC , Sonnen flew trough the Bodog Fight organization by winning 5 fights in a row with no losses. He won against Tim Credeur via TKO , Alexey Oleinik by unanimous decision , Tim McKenzie via Brabo Choke , Amar Soulver via TKO and Kyacey Uscola via TKO.

WEC
In December 2007, Sonnen fought Paulo Filho for the WEC middleweight championship. Sonnen lost via submission at 4:55 of the second round. There was controversy stemming from the fight stoppage, however. Sonnen did not tap out but yelled out, and the referee took that as a verbal submission and stopped the fight.
Sonnen and Filho eventually met again on November 5, 2008, where Sonnen soundly defeated Filho by unanimous decision and won championship belt

Back to UFC
After WEC's breakdown Sonnen was moveed back over to the UFC. In his first comeback fight he lost to Demian Maia via triangle choke at UFC 95.
Sonnen came back stronger at UFC 98 and won against Dan Miller by total domination trough the three rounds. In his next fight UFC gave him Yushin Okami , strong japanese guy . Sonnen out-wrestled him with Okami's no chance to do anything. After thath fight Okami asked Sonnen to be his training partner.
Sonnen's last test before Championship fight was heavly favored Nate Marquardt. Chael out-wrestled him too over the three rounds and won by unanimous decision.

Championship fight
Finally it was time to meet the champion Anderson Silva. Chael was much self-confident before the fight and he showed it in the fight. He dominated Anderson in stand-up and on the floor. Silva was never beaten like that and fight was going too good for Sonnen till the last two minutes of the 5th round. Chael's first litlle inattention and he found himself in Anderson's triangle choke which led Anderson to title defend.

In his next fight at UFC 136 , Chael will face Brian Stann which is known as a good striker and a great athlete.