Chael Sonnen has been notified by the California State Athleteic Commission that he failed a post-fight drug test at UFC 117. This is not good news for Sonnen who was minutes away from upsetting Anderson Silva in August. Sonnen had been dominating Silva for 4-plus rounds when Silva submitted him with an arm triangle. The fight was the culmination of months of trash talk by Sonnen that created a huge buzz around the fight which is said to have sold a million pay-per-views. The UFC was planning an immediate rematch for Super Bowl weekend.

The Sonnen camp is predictably (and unusually) quiet right now, but Silva’s manager, Ed Soares was willing to talk to Sherdog who first broke the story. Hell, Soares was probably giddy to comment.

“If its true, I feel really bad for him,” said Soares. “I know he did it to himself but it is really sad, he put on such a great performance that night. It is just a shame it will be tarnished.”

After his performance at UFC 117, Sonnen had gained a lot of new fans and had created hope for those that thought Anderson Silva was untouchable. Sonnen was a loudmouthed challenger and I thought he was amusing as Hell. Fans were about to be treated to – or tortured by, depending on what you thought of Sonnen – another few months of soundbites in the lead up to the second title fight. Now, that probably won’t happen.

The one word that keeps popping into my head is “shame.” This is definitely a shame. Whatever you think about Sonnen, he delivered a good fight at UFC 117. Now, that’s tainted and he’ll be labeled a fraud. Now we wait to see if he fights this.

Too bad this Q&A session wasn’t a week later. (Via Heavy.com)

[Sherdog via Cage Potato]