Chael Sonnen out of Shogun fight due to visa issues, bout could still happen
After much back-and-forth, it appears the Chael Sonnen-Shogun bout has fallen through due to Sonnen unable to obtain the necessary visa required to fight at the Winnipeg event. Guilherme Cruz of Tatame tweeted the bad news:
Chael Sonnen not fighting Shogun Rua at UFC 161 due to visa issues, I’m told
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) June 4, 2013
The news is obviously devastating for the status of UFC 161, which already lost its main event when Renan Barao went down with injury. When Antonio Rogerio Nogueira pulled out of his fight with Shogun, the event went onto immediate life support. Sonnen, always ready to help the UFC when called upon, was willing to step in and fight Shogun on short notice at light heavyweight. Although the bout is a no-go for UFC 161, there is still a definite possibility that it will still take place, perhaps at UFC on Fox Sports 1:Boston:
Update: Shogun-Sonnen will probably be moved to UFC on FoxSports 1 #1 card, on August 17
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) June 4, 2013
So bad news for UFC 161 may mean Boston’s card may be bolstered, making the late summer debut for Fox Sports 1 a stacked card. That will remain to be seen, as no announcement has been made by UFC officials. What is certain, however, is that UFC 161 is quickly falling apart and may go down as one of the weaker PPV events in history. Let’s hope that’s not the case, because Canadian fans had it bad enough with last summer’s UFC 149.
