Less than a week after Chael Sonnen tapped an end to what would have been the  biggest win of his career, he is backing up his post fight statements and pursuing another shot at the middleweight gold still wrapped around Anderson Silva’s waist.

Mike Roberts, Sonnen’s manger, told MMAHour that both he and Sonnen met with the UFC Monday to talk about what’s next for Sonnen, and in that meeting, Sonnen let it be known that he is ready to enter the cage again with “The Spider.”

Roberts said,

“I just had a talk with the UFC  on Monday morning. You know, we don’t tell them how to do their job. The only thing that we do is tell them what we want, and the simple question was asked, ‘What does Chael want?’ And Chael’s answer was, ‘I want to do this again. The party ain’t over yet.’

“They said they were going to figure it out, probably in the next week. Dana [White] and Joe Silva are going to get together and put their heads together and see what makes sense. I’m sure Anderson and Ed are going to say their opinions on what they think and we’re going to say our opinions on what we think, and Dana and Joe will figure out the best scenario. But I can’t imagine that any less than 7 out of 10 fans would want to see that fight again.”

When discussing Silva’s comments about coming into the fight with badly injured ribs from a training incident  10 days before the bout, Roberts seemed to imply it was a sign of disrespect to mention it immediately following the win.

“I believe [Silva injured his ribs], but my take on that is this: even if it’s true, there’s no need to say that; there’s no point. And I mean, Chael has plenty of issues that distracted him and injuries going into this fight that it’s just pointless to bring up. I don’t know of a fighter that has gone in [to a fight] non-injured.”

When asked if he thought Silva’s camp was trying to take something away from Sonnen by discussing the injury after the fight, Roberts said,

“Oh, sure. For sure. That’s the only way there is to look at it”

Anderson Silva’s manager, Ed Soares,  on The MMA Hour, and when asked during the  The MMA Hour whether he thought Sonnen deserved an immediate rematch, Soares seemed open to the idea, but not completely convinced.

“The way I look at it is, Chael fought his fight. And Chael had Anderson on his back for twenty-two minutes of that fight. …The way I feel is that Chael had Anderson in the position he wanted him, and if he wasn’t able to finish Anderson in twenty-two minutes in the position you said you wanted him in, then, hey man, you had your shot. No offense, not saying you can’t get another shot, but you know what I mean?”

Upon hearing that, Roberts, said he wasn’t surprised to hear that Silva or his camp were not sold on the whole idea of an immediate rematch.

“I don’t blame them for wanting to fight Vitor Belfort first, I mean, look what you saw. You think Anderson is dying to get back in there for another five rounds of that? I don’t blame him for saying that. It makes way more sense for Chael and Anderson to fight again. “

“It’s definitely a rematch people want to see,” White said during the post fight interview. “We can definitely do a rematch. It was awesome. I loved that Chael talked the smack he did and then went out and backed it up.” When contacted by MMA Fighting regarding whether he had made a decision on Silva’s next fight, UFC president Dana White responded, “not yet.”

So, should Sonnen get an immediate rematch or should he just step back and let Vitor Belfort get his promised shot at the title. Sonnen gained my respect with his outstanding performance but Silva also earned my respect for his ability to keep looking for a way to win despite the 20 minutes of abuse that he received.  In all fairness, Sonnen got his shot and Silva proved to us the same thing that Brock Lesnar  recently demonstrated, they both showed the heart of  true champions.