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Collector profile “The American Gangster”

Chael Sonnen

Sonnen fought for twelve years, including a UFC debut at UFC 55 and a full WEC title run, before a card company put him on cardboard — and when Topps finally did, it was on a two-man bout card from a fight he lost. 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 pairs him with Demian Maia from UFC 95 and is the only 2009 card he has; his first solo card and his first certified autograph both wait until autumn 2010, after the Anderson Silva fight at UFC 117 made him the biggest draw in the middleweight division. That same rivalry is what most of his best cards are built on: the Silva feud gives him dual autographs in 2011 Finest and Moment of Truth, and it is the reason Topps came back to him in 2024 when UFC 117 went into the Hall of Fame's Fight Wing. There is no WEC-licensed set and no Bellator card from his 2017–2019 run, so the whole collectable record is Topps.

2009Rookie year
#137Rookie card
10Key cards
  • UFC debutOctober 7, 2005 · UFC 55
  • DivisionsMiddleweight · Light Heavyweight · Heavyweight
  • FromClackamas County, Oregon
Rookie card#137
01

The rookie case

#137
Rookie card · working pick Rookie disputed

2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137

The only Chael Sonnen card issued before 2010, and it is a shared bout card from a fight he lost — Demian Maia's triangle choke at UFC 95 on 21 February 2009. Topps used the back half of the Round 2 checklist for two-man fight cards precisely to cover fighters who had no portrait card, which is how a twelve-year veteran who had already headlined a WEC title fight got onto cardboard for the first time. It sits eleven numbers from the Junior dos Santos / Stefan Struve card and four from the Carlos Condit / Martin Kampmann card in the same run.

Where sources disagree

Sources disagree on whether #137 is a true rookie card rather than simply his first card. The Trading Card Database RC flags carried in FightCardboard's Round 2 checklist mark it RC, and eBay listing titles read 'Rookie RC'; SportsCardsPro's data field for the same card says 'No'. What is not in dispute is that nothing earlier exists.

Commonly misidentified

Because the card names two fighters, it is routinely catalogued and sold under Demian Maia alone, and listing titles describe it as a 'UFC Debut' card even though UFC 95 was neither man's debut — Sonnen debuted at UFC 55 in 2005 and Maia at UFC 77 in 2007. Sellers also describe it as a Round 1 card; Round 1 has no Sonnen at all.

High confidence×1View sources & research
Rookie card case Card record
02

Key Sonnen cards

10 cards chosen for significance, not completeness; autographs and numbered cards follow below.

2010 Topps UFC (Series 4) #63
2010 Topps UFC Knockout #29
2024 Topps Now UFC #10
03

Card history

Sonnen fought for twelve years, including a UFC debut at UFC 55 in October 2005 and a WEC title fight, before any company put him on cardboard — and when Topps finally did it was on a shared bout card from a fight he lost. 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 pairs him with Demian Maia from UFC 95, the night Maia caught him in a triangle. Topps used the back half of the Round 2 checklist for two-man cards precisely to cover fighters with no portrait card, and Round 1 has no Sonnen entry in any subset. He is in none of Round 2's inserts, relics or autographs either, so for a full year this single shared card is his entire licensed output. Sellers often title it a 'UFC Debut' card; it was neither man's debut.

That card is also his rookie, with the usual caveat: the Trading Card Database flags #137 RC and eBay sells it as '(RC)', while SportsCardsPro's rookie field reads 'No'. Nothing earlier exists to argue for — he is absent from the 2006 Pride FC set and the 2000 SEG/Crave promos alike — so the disagreement is only over the label. Collectors who reject a shared bout card as a rookie buy 2010 Topps UFC Series 4 #63 instead, his first card with nobody else on it, released 24 September 2010.

The Anderson Silva fight at UFC 117 on 7 August 2010 changed his card status overnight. Series 4, seven weeks later, gave him base #63, a fight-mat relic, a Tale of the Tape card opposite Nate Marquardt, a short-printed nickname variation reading 'The American Gangster' at a reported 250 copies — same card number as the base, only the nameplate differs — and Fighter Autographs #FA-CS, marked 'First Issue' on the checklist and his first certified signature, five years after his UFC debut. December's high-end Knockout went deeper still: base #29 with Gold /308, Silver /188, Green /88 and Red /8, a Notable Nicknames autograph at 25 copies, an autographed fight-worn relic /50, a fighter autograph /299 and a fight-mat card /488. Note that Topps reused the FA-CS code in 2025, so the year on the back decides which autograph a listing means.

For the next two years Topps built product lines out of the Silva rivalry. He has no base card at all in 2011 Finest UFC — the checklist lists him exactly once — and that one card is Finest Feuds Dual Autographs #FF-SS, both men signing the same piece of chromium at 25 copies, which makes it simultaneously his only card in the set and the scarcest Sonnen item of the Topps era. Moment of Truth on 30 November 2011 finally gave him eight cards, base #126 plus Certified Signatures #CS-CS as the accessible signature beside a /25 Showdown Shots dual with Silva and a /25 Tale of the Tape dual relic. Bloodlines, out 7 December 2012 in the year of the UFC 148 rematch, is the densest product in his catalogue after Knockout: a hard-signed autograph numbered to 88, an autographed jumbo fight-mat relic /25, a Global Conflict dual with Michael Bisping /25 and a Countrymen quad autograph book card whose fourth subject sources cannot agree on.

Then the cardboard stops. The Jon Jones title fight at UFC 159, the retirement, and the whole Bellator run against Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson, Wanderlei Silva and Fedor produced no licensed card at all — Bellator's card rights did not reach Panini until well after his last fight in June 2019. The revival came in 2024, when UFC 117 went into the Hall of Fame's Fight Wing: Topps marked it with UFC Topps Now card 10, a print-to-order Silva/Sonnen online exclusive whose population is only what sold in its short window, and with Octagon Legends Autographs #OLA-CSO in Topps Chrome UFC, a seventeen-card retired-fighter subset running /150, /50, /25, /10, /5 and a SuperFractor 1/1. He is not in that set's 200-card base checklist at all. A 2025 Topps Finest autograph, #FA-CS again, in a Blue Checkerboard Refractor /75, keeps him in the high-end signature rotation — and his first card and his latest are both shared cards from the same lost fight.

Sources for every paragraph

04

Autographs

5 certified autographs in the archive.

2010Topps UFC Autographs #FA-CS Auto
2011Finest UFC — Finest Feuds Dual Autographs #FF-SS Auto/25
2011Topps UFC Moment of Truth Certified Signatures #CS-CS Auto
2012Topps UFC Bloodlines — Fighter Autographs #CS Auto/88
2024Topps Chrome UFC — Octagon Legends Autographs #OLA-CSO Auto
05

Numbered & parallels

Serial-numbered cards and parallels with their own record.

2010Topps UFC (Series 4) #63b /250
06

Card eras

2009
One card, and it isn't his own

Round 1 has no Sonnen at all; Round 2 puts him on bout card #137 opposite Demian Maia, from the UFC 95 fight Maia won by triangle. He is in none of Round 2's insert, relic or autograph checklists, so for a full year that single shared card is his entire licensed output.

2010
After UFC 117 the floodgates open

The Anderson Silva fight on 7 August 2010 changed his card status overnight. Topps UFC Series 4 (released 24 September) gave him base #63, a 'The American Gangster' nickname variation and Fighter Autographs #FA-CS, his first certified signature; December's Knockout added base #29 with a full Gold /308 to Red /8 parallel run plus autographs, fight-mat and fight-worn relics.

2011–2012
The Silva feud as a product line

Topps built subsets around the rivalry: Finest UFC's Finest Feuds Dual Autographs #FF-SS /25 signed by both men, Moment of Truth's Showdown Shots duals and Certified Signatures #CS-CS, then Bloodlines in December 2012 with a hard-signed #CS /88 and a Global Conflict dual autograph with Michael Bisping.

2013–2019
Late career, thin cardboard

The Jon Jones title fight at UFC 159, the retirement, the Bellator years against Ortiz, Rampage, Wanderlei Silva and Fedor — none of it produced a licensed card. Bellator's trading-card rights did not reach Panini until years after his last fight at Bellator 222 in June 2019.

2024
Hall of Fame revival

UFC 117 went into the Hall of Fame Fight Wing and Topps marked it twice: UFC Topps Now card 10, an online-exclusive print-to-order Silva/Sonnen card, and Topps Chrome UFC Octagon Legends Autographs #OLA-CSO with a refractor ladder down to a 1/1 SuperFractor.

2025
Still signing

Topps kept him in the high-end autograph rotation — SportsCardsPro catalogues a 2025 Topps Finest UFC Autographs #FA-CS Blue Checkerboard Refractor /75, and Topps' own site lists him among subjects for 2026 Stadium Club UFC.

07

Rookie parallels

Base
—
Unnumbered
Gold
—
Probable
Onyx
/188
Probable
Ruby
/8
Probable
Diamond
1/1
Probable

How to identify each one

08

Sets

Where Sonnen's key cards come from.

09

Buying & wanted

Wanted by FightCardboard
  • 012011 Finest UFC Finest Feuds Dual Autographs #FF-SS /25 — Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen on one card, the scarcest piece of the rivalry
  • 022010 Topps UFC Fighter Autographs #FA-CS, his first certified signature, and the Onyx parallel version of it
  • 032009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 Chael Sonnen / Demian Maia — list and search it under both names, because it files under Maia as often as under Sonnen
  • 042010 Topps UFC Series 4 #63 'The American Gangster' nickname variation, reported at 250 copies

Offer one

Available here

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Sources & research High confidence×11Probable×5

Every factual claim on this page, the evidence behind it, and an honest confidence level. Where sources disagree the disagreement is kept, not quietly resolved.

High confidence

Chael Sonnen's rookie card: 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 — Chael Sonnen / Demian Maia.

2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 is the first licensed card of any kind to carry Chael Sonnen. Jeff Allender's checklist for Round 2 lists him exactly once, on the fight card 'Chael Sonnen Vrs Demian Maia' at #137, and confirms he appears in none of the set's insert, relic or autograph subsets. The Round 1 checklist has no Sonnen entry at all, and no earlier MMA set — PRIDE FC 2006, the 2000 SEG/Crave promos — includes him either, so there is no pre-Topps card to argue for. FightCardboard's Round 2 checklist carries an RC flag on #137 and eBay listings sell it as '(RC)'.

High confidence

Sonnen fought for twelve years, including a UFC debut at UFC 55 in October 2005 and a WEC title fight, before any company put him on cardboard — and when Topps finally did it was on a shared bout card from a fight he lost. 2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 pairs him with Demian Maia from UFC 95, the night Maia caught him in a triangle. Topps used the back half of the Round 2 checklist for two-man cards precisely to cover fighters with no portrait card, and Round 1 has no Sonnen entry in any subset. He is in none of Round 2's inserts, relics or autographs either, so for a full year this single shared card is his entire licensed output. Sellers often title it a 'UFC Debut' card; it was neither man's debut.

High confidence

That card is also his rookie, with the usual caveat: the Trading Card Database flags #137 RC and eBay sells it as '(RC)', while SportsCardsPro's rookie field reads 'No'. Nothing earlier exists to argue for — he is absent from the 2006 Pride FC set and the 2000 SEG/Crave promos alike — so the disagreement is only over the label. Collectors who reject a shared bout card as a rookie buy 2010 Topps UFC Series 4 #63 instead, his first card with nobody else on it, released 24 September 2010.

High confidence

The Anderson Silva fight at UFC 117 on 7 August 2010 changed his card status overnight. Series 4, seven weeks later, gave him base #63, a fight-mat relic, a Tale of the Tape card opposite Nate Marquardt, a short-printed nickname variation reading 'The American Gangster' at a reported 250 copies — same card number as the base, only the nameplate differs — and Fighter Autographs #FA-CS, marked 'First Issue' on the checklist and his first certified signature, five years after his UFC debut. December's high-end Knockout went deeper still: base #29 with Gold /308, Silver /188, Green /88 and Red /8, a Notable Nicknames autograph at 25 copies, an autographed fight-worn relic /50, a fighter autograph /299 and a fight-mat card /488. Note that Topps reused the FA-CS code in 2025, so the year on the back decides which autograph a listing means.

High confidence

For the next two years Topps built product lines out of the Silva rivalry. He has no base card at all in 2011 Finest UFC — the checklist lists him exactly once — and that one card is Finest Feuds Dual Autographs #FF-SS, both men signing the same piece of chromium at 25 copies, which makes it simultaneously his only card in the set and the scarcest Sonnen item of the Topps era. Moment of Truth on 30 November 2011 finally gave him eight cards, base #126 plus Certified Signatures #CS-CS as the accessible signature beside a /25 Showdown Shots dual with Silva and a /25 Tale of the Tape dual relic. Bloodlines, out 7 December 2012 in the year of the UFC 148 rematch, is the densest product in his catalogue after Knockout: a hard-signed autograph numbered to 88, an autographed jumbo fight-mat relic /25, a Global Conflict dual with Michael Bisping /25 and a Countrymen quad autograph book card whose fourth subject sources cannot agree on.

High confidence

Then the cardboard stops. The Jon Jones title fight at UFC 159, the retirement, and the whole Bellator run against Tito Ortiz, Rampage Jackson, Wanderlei Silva and Fedor produced no licensed card at all — Bellator's card rights did not reach Panini until well after his last fight in June 2019. The revival came in 2024, when UFC 117 went into the Hall of Fame's Fight Wing: Topps marked it with UFC Topps Now card 10, a print-to-order Silva/Sonnen online exclusive whose population is only what sold in its short window, and with Octagon Legends Autographs #OLA-CSO in Topps Chrome UFC, a seventeen-card retired-fighter subset running /150, /50, /25, /10, /5 and a SuperFractor 1/1. He is not in that set's 200-card base checklist at all. A 2025 Topps Finest autograph, #FA-CS again, in a Blue Checkerboard Refractor /75, keeps him in the high-end signature rotation — and his first card and his latest are both shared cards from the same lost fight.

High confidence

2009 Topps UFC Round 2 #137 — Chael Sonnen / Demian Maia.

High confidence

2010 Topps UFC (Series 4) #63 — Chael Sonnen.

Probable

2010 Topps UFC (Series 4) #63b — Chael Sonnen.

High confidence

2010 Topps UFC Autographs #FA-CS — Chael Sonnen.

High confidence

2010 Topps UFC Knockout #29 — Chael Sonnen.

Probable

2011 Finest UFC — Finest Feuds Dual Autographs #FF-SS — Chael Sonnen / Anderson Silva.

Probable

2011 Topps UFC Moment of Truth Certified Signatures #CS-CS — Chael Sonnen.

Probable

2012 Topps UFC Bloodlines — Fighter Autographs #CS — Chael Sonnen.

High confidence

2024 Topps Chrome UFC — Octagon Legends Autographs #OLA-CSO — Chael Sonnen.

Probable

2024 Topps Now UFC #10 — Chael Sonnen / Anderson Silva.