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We all heard Chael Sonnen’s arbitrary 24 hour timeline he issue to Wanderlei Silva last week. Unsurprisingly, Silva didn’t respond to Sonnen directly, but Wandy gave Ariel Helwani his take on Chael Sonnen.

Wanderlei Silva appeared on “UFC Tonight” Tuesday to respond to Chael Sonnen’s recent remarks.

The feud between Silva and Sonnen has been on-going for quite some time now, and it appears as if the only way to settle it is inside the Octagon.

While Sonnen issued a deadline for Silva to accept his challenge, “The Axe Murderer” remarked that no contract has been presented to him. Of course, that wasn’t all he had to say.

Jon Jones and Anderson Silva have been too nice to Chael. I want to suck his blood. I want to smell it. Not just fight – I want to hurt him. Chael is a joke, man. He’s going to be second forever. He’s never going to be first.

Sonnen, as co-host of the show, was given a chance to respond:

I think the real breaking news there is that Wanderlei Silva put together a coherent sentence that somebody understood. But I can assure you, Wanderlei, I will not be signing a contract for you to suck on any part of me. I suggest you go to a bath and find yourself.

Doesn’t it just seem like these two HAVE to fight in the near future?

Wanderlei Silva didn’t let the 24-hour deadline set by Chael Sonnen expire, though, he also didn’t technical confirm the fight.

Sonnen made it clear he wants Silva for his next bout, and it appears as if “The Axe Murderer” is down, as well.

Just wait!!! Estou so Esperando!!!

— Wanderlei Silva (@wandfc) May 10, 2013

Sonnen had previously called out Silva, and proceeded to issue a 24-hour deadline for the former PRIDE champion to accept.

Silva defeated Brian Stann earlier this year, while Sonnen lost to UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

And they are… both good and bad. UFC 159 featuring Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones sold an estimated 520,000-555,000 pay-per-view buys. That number is good enough for the second highest selling pay-per-view of the year. When comparing numbers from 2010, the number isn’t that great but considering that the UFC nowadays is struggling to put together consistently high-selling cards, I’m sure that they are pretty happy with the number.

Still, considering in the last three years there are only seven cards that sold more than UFC 159, all in all in was a good number. I can’t say that I didn’t expect something more with the combination of a season of The Ultimate Fighter and Chael Sonnen’s antics but the marketing for UFC 159 wasn’t all that great. In fact, the main promo for Sonnen’s second fight with Anderson Silva ended with the exact same words as the promo for UFC 159: “Beat me, if you can.” That being said, Chael Sonnen drew better than every other Jon Jones opponent except for Rashad Evans. And it is still way above the average buy-rate of 450,000 buys over the past three years.

Maybe I’m thinking about the numbers incorrectly. Maybe I should just accept that today’s public isn’t quite as interested in specific UFC pay-per-views because there are so many nowadays that people have to make very clear choices as to which ones to buy. Very few people can afford to shell out $59.99 for the amount of pay-per-views that are aired in today’s day in age. In the UFC’s golden age of 2010, they reached a perfect balance of matchmaking and hype, properly spacing out each card to properly market and develop hype. So the days of averaging 600,000 buy event are long gone.

All in all it was a successful card but I can’t help but think they could have achieved a little more. Then again, maybe people saw through the squash match and decided they could catch the highlights. Or maybe some people figured they’d rather watch Mayweather fight then watch Jones beat down a middleweight.

Chael Sonnen has made it clear: he wants Wanderlei Silva for his next fight.

Sonnen, who has called out “The Axe Murderer” for several years, took to Twitter late Wednesday night and issued a deadline for the former PRIDE champion to accept his challenge.

Wand- you have 24 hours to accept. If you do, I will donate 10% of my purse to help schools in your hometown of Curitiba .. I mean, VEGAS.

— chael sonnen (@sonnench) May 9, 2013

Sonnen has constantly referenced Silva’s decision to live and train in the U.S. and not Brazil.

As of now, no response yet from Silva in regards to the challenge. Rumors have the fight going down in August from Boston on the debut FOX Sports 1 card.

After getting beatdown by Jon Jones at UFC 159, Chael Sonnen seemed contrite and resolute in his idea that he would retire because he had no legitimate shot at being a champion. However, it is now being reported that Sonnen has called out Wanderlei Silva and looks to take on “The Axe Murderer”  at UFC on FOX Sports 1 before he calls it a career.

In many ways, this mirrors the end of Matt Hughes’ career when he took on BJ Penn and Renzo Gracie near the end of his career. Neither fighter was very close to title contention (at the time) and it was more of a fun matchup for Hughes. The Gracie matchup harkened back to the days of PRIDE when fans watched Gracie take on all comers in Japan. The matchup with BJ Penn was intriguing because Penn had returned to the Welterweight division and it served as the rubber match for their series.

In the same way, Sonnen is smart enough to realize that he can still cash in on his personality and make a few more paydays in the sport of MMA. Furthermore, there is minimal risk in taking on a guy like Wanderlei Silva. Silva has never had the strongest takedown defense. If they fight at 205 lbs, Sonnen will have a big size and wrestling advantage over Silva. The chances that Silva is able to beat him up on the feet is minimal because Sonnen’s powerful wrestling will put Silva on his back for much of the fight. Silva can always attempt to submit Sonnen, but Silva’s strong Jiu-Jitsu game has never led to too many submissions in either PRIDE or the UFC. All in all, it seems likely that Sonnen will take down Silva for three or five rounds and come away with paycheck and a unanimous victory.

Sonnen probably has a few matchups like this left in him before he calls it a career. Vitor Belfort in Brazil would sell extremely well, though that is a more dangerous matchup for Sonnen. Either way, he’s put himself in a position where he can cash in on his persona with some high profile, but ultimately irrelevant fights.

Chael Sonnen, just days removed from a loss to Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight title, returned to his co-hosting duties on “UFC Tonight” alongside Kenny Florian.

Sonnen made several interesting remarks during the show. The former contender to both the middleweight and 205-pound belts discussed his loss to Jones, how he would have reacted had the fight been stopped due to Jones’ injury, and who he wants next.

This was like getting into a bear cage. This guy was a monster of a man. We weighed in at the same size the day before, and I don’t know how that was possible. I put my arms around him and I thought, ‘oh my god, you’re a big guy.’ As far as the match went, I got beat up.

During the first round, Jones suffered a dislocated big toe. Neither champion or challenger realized it during the course of action, and Jones was awarded the TKO victory with just seconds left in the round.

However, had the fight reached the intermission, it likely would have been stopped due to the injury. Would Sonnen have been fine earning the belt via injury default? You better believe it.

Diplomatically you don’t ever want to win that way. The ones that hurt are the ones you’re supposed to win and then you blow it. But if it was given to me, I would have grabbed that belt, I would have held it up, grabbed the mic and told the crowd the golden rule is ‘he with the gold rules,’ and I would have walked out of the place and never looked back.

As for his future, Sonnen plans to remain in the fighting business, and wants to settle things with long-time rival Wanderlei Silva. Both now fight – again – in the same division, so a bout could be in store down the road.

Wanderlei called me out before, but the fight never made sense. Now it does. I’m not going anywhere until me and Wanderlei straighten this thing out once and for all. Wanderlei pulled a dirt bag move on me one time. He said something to me that I couldn’t hear, and then put it on YouTube with subtitles because he knew I couldn’t understand it and called me out. If you’re a fighter, that doesn’t fly. You must respond to him, and I’m ready to respond to you Wanderlei.

Chael Sonnen changes his stance on Jon Jones 180 degrees. He defends his trash-talking; he says he doesn’t try to promote fights. He speaks truth. Later, he calls out Wanderlei Silva.

Take a look at Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen and what went on before the two met in the main event at UFC 159.

-We saw one of the strangest cards in recent memory last night at UFC 159. The fights were solid but there were so many extenuating circumstances that made for an extremely strange card. Jon Jones is the champ and remains the top fighter at 205, but a toe injury sustained during the fight could keep him out for 10-12 weeks. It is rather disappointing to see one of the great talents in MMA waste his prime years fighting middleweights like Vitor Belfort and Chael Sonnen. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn anything new about Jones last night. Here’s to hoping he recovers quickly and can take on Alexander Gustafsson relatively soon. Meanwhile, Chael Sonnen will likely retire unless he can get a few big money grudge match fights, ala Renzo Gracie vs. Matt Hughes. If the UFC wanted to match up Sonnen with Vitor Belfort in a fight in Brazil, I think Sonnen would be interested in another payday.

-We didn’t learn anything new about Michael Bisping last night either. Alan Belcher fought a dumb fight and let the quick hands of Bisping touch up his face because of his low-hanging hands. Once it became clear that Belcher couldn’t grapple with Bipsing, he had nothing for him. Bisping’s speed and cardio was too much for Belcher and he looked completely done by round three. It seemed like Belcher’s injury was to his eyelid and not the actual eyeball, but hopefully his retina is intact and he can fight again soon.

-Roy Nelson’s overhand right is a dangerous weapon. It’s funny how every heavyweight knows it’s coming but most can’t stop it. Nelson continues to do what he does: knock dudes out. It seems like he’ll take on Daniel Cormier next which is probably a bad matchup for Nelson. Cormier has faster hands and better wrestling than the former Ultimate Fighter Champion. At the same time, you can’t count Nelson out because of his big right hand that can put anyone out.

-Phil Davis proved he was a better striker and wrestler than Vinny Magalhaes last night. Magalhaes has improved his striking and he did a good job of avoiding excessive damage but he still got destroyed standing. Davis cruised to a decision after he managed to get Magalhaes off his back in round 1.

-Pat Healy beat Jim Miller at his own game, tiring out Miller and using his size and strength to bully Miller in rounds 2 and 3. Healy’s size and grappling ability is going to be a tough out for anyone in the lightweight division.

-Sara McMann looked great tonight. She’s moving closer to a fight with Rousey and I think she is the only one who has a chance to take her out. Gian Villante also learned the hard way that the New Jersey State Athletic commission doesn’t play around when it comes to fighter safety. I’ve said many times that it is stupid for referees to ask fighters if they can see because they’ll obviously lie, but when a fighter responds “No” to that question the referee has no choice but to stop the fight. Oh, and Ovince St. Preux was pretty disappointing overall in that fight. After his fifth straight loss, you have to think Leonard Garcia will finally get his walking papers from the UFC.