There's a irony in the long-awaited rematch between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen having been delayed by a United Nations conference - for the war of words between the two men has been more heated and confrontational than a thousand conflict negotiations. This weekend the near two-year feud between the two men will finally come to an end when they step inside a cage to compete for Silva's UFC middleweight title - a title for which he remains undefeated, and at times barely challenged, since 2006. The Spider's dominance of the UFC middleweight division since entering the fight league six years ago has been notable - at times controversially so. When the organization came to Abu Dhabi two years ago, Silva put on such a lazy, taunting display against Damien Maia in front of the company's new market - and investors - that UFC president Dana White threatened to dump him on the preliminary cards and leave him to rot. Silva, it seemed, was in a comfort zone. Pound for pound the best fighter of his generation, the likes of Maia, Nate Marquardt and even then-Pride champion Dan Henderson were unable to offer any real test to his resolve. Indeed, against Maia in Abu Dhabi and Thales Leites in Montreal, Silva looked almost bored. That changed just shy of two years ago, when Milwalkie-born former all-American wrestler Chael Sonnen stepped into the cage to face Silva on the UFC 117 card in Oakland, California. Sonnen decked Silva with a punch and takedown early on, and proceeded to dominate the champion with his superior skills, working inside the Brazilian's guard to overpower Silva and control the fight. For the first time since arriving in the UFC four years earlier, the Brazilian looked in real danger of losing his title. With just under two minutes of the final round remaining, Silva managed to lock Sonnen with a triangle and force a submission victory. It was a dramatic end to a bout that had seen Silva suffer more hits in four-and-a-half rounds than in his previous 11 fights combined. Sonnen was comfortably ahead on the judges scorecards, and demand for a rematch was high. Not as high, it turned out, as Silva's testosterone to epitestosterone ratio - an indicator that Sonnen had been taking performance-enhancing drugs. Clocking in at 17 times the accepted rate for a normal man, and 4 times the maximum permitted in athletes, he was hit with a fine and ban by the California State Athletic Commission. Sonnen went on to claim he was taking testosterone replacement therapy for a medical condition, a back-and-forth with the CSAC which took up much of his time off. And with Silva suffering from cracked ribs and Sonnen banned from the sport for a year, rematch plans went on the back burner. In pretty much any other circumstances, a fighter who loses, and fails a drugs test after the bout - and is involved in a money laundering scandal during their suspension - wouldn't expect to feature highly on the radar for some time. They'd certainly have to work their way back up the ladder. Sonnen did just that - with a triangle choke win over Brian Stann followed by a unanimous judges victory over Michael Bisping. But throughout his time on the sidelines, his fights to get back up the rankings... even promoting his book, Sonnen continued to talk up his fight with Silva. Taking verbal shot after shot at his rival, Silva's wife, Brazil... things got to the point where UFC chiefs feared staging the rematch bout in Brazil in case it genuinely led to a riot. Despite that, it was planned to be staged in a 47,000-seat stadium in Rio de Janeiro, until a nearby UN conference scuppered that idea. This weekend, a fortnight later and several thousand miles north of the originally planned location, and 22 months after their original bout, the two men will face each other once again in what could be the biggest UFC event of the year. A bullish Dana White has predicted it will be one of the company's biggest drawing pay-per-view cards of all time, claiming he expects it to match the 1.6m buys that the UFC's 100th PPV card drew this time two years ago. Such a buyrate would put it on a par with Floyd Mayweather's bout with Miguel Cotto in May, but how realistic that is remains to be seen. Certainly the undercard fight of Forest Griffin taking on new Hall of Fame inductee Tito Ortiz - who is set to retire after the bout - will have some interest to casual viewers, but many of the fights on the card are likely more interesting to dedicated MMA fans than casual observers. But the hype surrounding the card has given a real big fight feel to Silva v Sonnen II. Indeed, at times much of the verbiage from the fighters has felt more like old-time pro-wrestlers generating interest in their bout than the traditional build-up for an athletic contest. Sonnen's trash talking clearly got under the skin of the normally mild-mannered and likable Silva, who lashed out with venom during a conference call last week to promote the show. Labeling his opponent a criminal and threatening to seriously hurt Sonnen, for once his translator/manager Ed Soares was guilty of playing down, rather than up, Silva's words - Portuguese speakers listening in to Silva's tirade reported Soares toned down his fighter's language in relaying the words to the rest of the conference. There's undoubtedly a danger the fight cannot live up to the hype surrounding it, no matter how hard both fighters and the UFC try. Two years on from their original bout., both men are older and more physically beaten up than they were at UFC 117. Silva is now 37, Sonnen 35. The Brazilian suffered a knee injury in training, though he was quick to dismiss it as minor. Yet equally both men are undoubtedly at the top of their sport though - ranked number one and two in the middleweight division, Silva stakes a credible claim to being not just the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA today, but one of the best in its history. Plus, there's another factor at play, outwith the fight. UFC feels as though it's in the doldrums at the moment. Too many fight cards in too short a timespan, with too many bouts being lost to injury, has clearly impacted on interest in the sport by both fans and the general public. While the quality of the performances may be high, the name value and the excitement factor has been missing for some time. Silva v Sonnen II is the first fight in a long time, perhaps even the first this year, to have a real main event feel to it. And in that respect at least - whatever happens on Sunday morning, however many pay-per-view records it does or doesn't break - the fight has already delivered.