By Matt Molgaard
MMANEWS.COM Staff Writer

While some may feel that UFC 148’s main event pitting longtime champion Anderson Silva against the champ’s most worthy UFC foe to date, Chael Sonnen, is worthy of appeal (a handful of minor infractions were made during the fight, including what many perceived as an illegal knee to the face), Sonnen himself isn’t among those skeptics.

When viewing multiple camera angles and numerous stills of the knee that ultimately triggered the second round downfall of Sonnen, it’s apparent that, while close, the knee did in fact land to the body of the challenger. The victory for Anderson was legit, albeit a little sketchy, and Chael Sonnen himself seems to agree (or, at least not disagree) with that assessment.

“The knee really hurt. All the shots really hurt. Here’s the reality: we don’t do instant replay in this sport, and we shouldn’t. It comes down to a judgment call, and wherever the referee says the knee landed officially, that is where the knee landed. That is an excellent official, as they all are. He made his call, and I will never complain and look back,” Sonnen recently explained. “The referee’s judgment is what stands. I trust in that, and it works both ways. The referee makes the decision... and we live with it. We would never go and appeal. It’s real easy to win... [but] part of competing is [knowing] how to lose. You have to man up, swallow it and walk out.”

As for whether or not Chael will be departing professional competition, well, that verdict is still up in the air.

“I don’t think any athlete should even begin to talk [about retirement] or even think like that until you let 30 days go by. In anything in life, you don’t want to make decision based on emotion. You have very big highs and very big lows in this sport. You don’t want to make any drastic decisions,” stated the consensus number two middleweight. “I think it’s an insult to the fans when guys just say ‘I retired,’ when they really mean, ‘I will see everybody in 18 months, because I am coming back.’ When I get to that point in my career, I will make the statement and I’ll never look back.”

For my money, I’m not banking on Sonnen exiting the sport in the wake of his second round TKO loss to Silva. Of course, I could be wrong, and stranger things have certainly happened.

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