The combat careers of Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva are inextricably linked.

Longtime UFC middleweight champion Silva, 49, and his former arch-rival Sonnen, 49, will cross paths for a third time on June 15 in Sao Paulo in what will be a five-round boxing exhibition, with each round to be two minutes in duration. The clash, which is effectively their trilogy bout after Silva won their two contests in mixed martial arts, is thought to the swan song to ‘The Spider’s’ legendary career.

For Sonnen, the two defeats to Silva hit hard — and especially that first one back in August 2010 where Sonnen was seconds away from realising a lifelong goal of become a world champion before succumbing to a fifth-round triangle choke (Silva would win their second fight a little under two years later in more dominant fashion).

And speaking on The Good Guy & Bad Guy, as noted by Bloody Elbow, Sonnen outlined the stakes for this weekend’s fight.

“There is nothing about this where I go ‘boxing is not quite my style’. I’m going out there to beat this man, to fix my life, or I am going to go the rest of my days looking at my career as a miserable fail,” he said.

“To be the one to get to sign off and close out [Silva’s] career, there is a certain appreciation,” he explained.

“But, before I go too ‘nice guy’, on you, the rule starting with number one is we damage each other. I know people like to be friendly and like to say we’ve made up; they love to use the word ‘respect’, I will adhere to it. It seems like the gentlemanly thing to do, but I’m going to damage him because that’s what I agreed to do.

“I’m going to put my body in there because he asked, he could have gotten any opponent he wanted but he apparently still wants to do damage to me. So, to act like everything is behind us is insincere.”