Lyoto Machida faces Chael Sonnen for Bellator in June

L.Machida faces C.Sonnen in June. Photo: Montagem SL / MMA Press

The Brazilian Lyoto Machida will face the North American, Chael Sonnen, at an event scheduled for June 14th, in New York (USA). The information was released by 'ESPN'. The clash between the two 'veterans' had already been verbally confirmed in February this year.

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Lyoto Machida will face an old acquaintance of Brazilians. The American, Chael Sonnen, gained notoriety after having a great rivalry with the Brazilian Anderson Silva. Sonnen is famous for his acid provocations in his fight promotions.

The 'American Gangster', as he likes to be called, was, for years, a big name in the UFC, being famous for achieving big pay-per-view sales. Despite having challenged three times for the Ultimate belt, twice against Anderson, for the middleweight title and once against Jon Jones, for the light heavyweight belt, Chael was never champion for the company.

Lyoto, in turn, held the UFC light heavyweight belt, having won the title after beating the legendary Rashad evans, in 2009. Machida lost the title in 2010 to the Brazilian Mauritius Shogun. The 'Dragão' qualified to compete for the belt again in 2011, when he faced Jon Jones. Lyoto, however, was submitted by Jones in an impressive standing guillotine.

Chanel Sonnen announced her retirement in 2014, but returned after an invitation to join Bellator's group of fighters in 2017. In the 'new home', Sonnen competed in four fights, having been defeated in two of them.

In 2018, after his contract with the UFC was not renewed, Machida also moved to the competing company. He made his debut in December last year against former Bellator middleweight champion, Raphael Carvalho. Lyoto won the fight via split decision.

Now 41 years old, Chael Sonnen He has a record of 47 fights and 15 losses. The last one happened in October last year, when he was knocked out by the legend Fedor Emelianenko.

Lyoto Machida, 40 years old, has 32 fights, 24 wins and eight losses.

The fight will take place in the light heavyweight category.