Sports

UFC’s Sonnen to move up in weight, face Griffin

Chael Sonnen has his next fight and it is, indeed, at light heavyweight.

Regarded as the No. 2 middleweight in the world, Sonnen announced Tuesday on Fuel TV’s “UFC Tonight” that he will move up to 205 pounds and face former champion Forrest Griffin at UFC 155 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas.

Sonnen told The Post earlier Tuesday that changing weight classes was his wish, because he was no longer in the middleweight title picture after losing to champion Anderson Silva, the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, twice in the last two years.

A move up to 205 would mean finding “the road back to a championship,” he said, but initially the UFC was resistant to the change. Evidently, Sonnen got his way, though a fight against Griffin is odd – the aging star hasn’t been in title contention in years.

The two have actually fought before, but not in the UFC. Griffin defeated Sonnen at IFC: Global Domination on Sept. 6, 2003 via triangle choke. Ironically, that’s also how Silva defeated Sonnen in their first fight.

Since then, Griffin, 33, went on to be the first winner of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show and he held the UFC light heavyweight title in 2008. Sonnen, 35, has peaked recently, beating everyone he’s faced not named Anderson Silva over the last three years.

Sonnen took a shot at Griffin in an interview with The Post on Tuesday, saying middleweight is clearly a tougher weight class, because Silva moved up to face Griffin in 2009 and knocked him out in the first round.

“We sent our champion (Silva) up to face their [former] champion, Forrest Griffin,” Sonnen said. “It lasted 93 seconds. There’s no debate to what the toughest weight class is. They used to have a karate guy (Lyoto Machida) that was champion at that weight.”

It actually took 3:23 for Silva to finish Griffin. Sonnen will surely look to top that at the UFC’s year-end show, which will be headlined by a heavyweight title fight between champion Junior dos Santos and former champ Cain Velasquez.

mraimondi@nypost.com