Coming into his UFC 117 bout against Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen has likened the black belt Silva received from the Nogueira's in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to "a toy that you get in a happy meal." Then there was the time when he said that Silva's "going to punch the air, he's going to dance, he's going to look more like Michael Jackson than a cage fighter." And that's really only been the tip of the iceberg. If you've been watching all of the pre-fight chatter unfold, Sonnen has literally been talking more junk than any fighter in recent UFC memory, which is particularly shocking considering the caliber of fighter he's taking on.
That said, Silva and his manager Ed Soares have seemingly been unphased by it all. But apparently that's not entirely true, at least not for Soares. You see, at the UFC Fan Expo this past May Silva's manager saw something that he didn't like very much.
"I was walking back to the hotel and Anderson was signing autographs for I don't know, there was maybe 15, 20 kids around and their parents, and there's a crowd around him," he told MMAWeekly.com. "Chael walked by completely by himself with his manager, and he says 'go ahead, sign all those things because in a couple months nobody's going to want your signature. Nobody's going to want that.'
When he said that, it's in front of kids, it's the first time that it kind of pissed me off."
It's all very interesting, isn't it? Sonnen would be the clear bad guy here if it weren't for the way that Silva acted at UFC 112 while taking on Demian Maia. It was such a disrespectful performance by the current champion that people are giving Sonnen a pass no matter what negative things he throws Silva's way.
Regardless, all of Sonnen's talk is either going to cause Silva to make a mistake born of aggression or motivate the current UFC Middleweight Champion. My guess?
I think Silva will be motivated (though I still think Sonnen is a lot of fun). And a motivated Silva is one you don't want to mess with- just ask Forrest Griffin.
More Articles
Comments