UFC: Middleweight Chael Sonnen's Court Date Pushed Back To April 8

MMAJunkie.com is reporting that Chael Sonnen’s court appearance scheduled for 11:30 a.m. on March 28 was postponed. 

A UFC middleweight contender, Sonnen’s contract was frozen once he was convicted of the federal charge of money laundering in connection with mortgage fraud on Jan. 3 of this year. 

One of MMA’s biggest trash-talkers is expected to receive two years probation, a $10,000 fine and the revocation of his license after he pleads guilty.

This is a slap on the wrist considering the maximum penalty for the charge is 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, according to the Clark County, Wash. newspaper The Columbian.

The Columbian was one of the first written publications to break the details of this story.

Despite the guilty plea, Sonnen will likely get a minimal penalty since he agreed to cooperate with the investigation into a ring of mortgage fraud. 

The Columbian investigated a step further, catching wind of a news release that indicated that:

“Sonnen acted as the real estate agent in a transaction involving a home in Portland, and submitted a false letter and sales agreement instructing the title company to disburse $69,000 to a contractor for plumbing repairs. However, in a deal arranged by Lighthouse employees, $65,000 of the money was actually kicked back to the buyer.”

MMAJunkie.com indicated that a local Oregon newspaper broke a similar story, albeit in less detail. 

Additionally, an unnamed member of Sonnen’s camp told MMAJunkie that Sonnen’s UFC contract will likely be "unfrozen when his legal troubles end.”

Sonnen was expected to take on another top middleweight in Yoshihiro Akiyama at UFC 128 right around the time his legal troubles leaked; that fight ended up being replaced with Nate Marquardt taking on Dan Miller. 

Despite being inactive since his MMA Awards 2010 Fight of the Year with middleweight champ Anderson Silva back in August, Sonnen has spoken up on occasion since then.

He maintains that he is better than Silva and could defeat him in a rematch, also stating that he was unimpressed with Silva’s first-round knockout of Vitor Belfort at UFC 126.

On a final note, Sonnen has recently called out fellow middleweight bad guy, Michael Bisping, for a matchup that would promise to bring a ton of pre-fight fireworks.