Wanderlei Silva may have gotten the drop on Chael Sonnen at Saturday’s Olympia Expo, but Sonnen wasted little time firing off a response on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight.
“I’m all for Wanderlei having a little fun,” Sonnen said on air.
“But Wanderlei, three things. First off, if you’re going to do a publicity stunt, do not bring your own camera. It looks staged, which it was. It insults your audience. Assume that they’re going to connect the dots. Show up somewhere where a camera is, and then go into your little routine.
“Secondly,” Sonnen continued. “In this country and in this industry, if you refuse to fight a guy, like you did me, you forfeit your right to then talk about that person in this type of fashion. Accosting somebody in public, can be regrettable. Accosting a gangster can be hazardous.”
For his final point, Sonnen extended an offer for the two rivals to conduct “a conventional and traditional style interview” on the UFC Tonight set.
In general, Sonnen seemed to take the gag in stride, repeating more than a few times that Silva can go ahead and have his fun. Although one particular aspect of the encounter surprised Sonnen more than anything.
“These guys shoo away. I turn about a quarter inch. Here’s Anthony Pettis and he’s ready to fight. Now they’ve got four guys against Pettis,” Sonnen recalled.
“Say what you want; Pettis is a handsome, nice champion. But at the end of the day, he’s a street kid from Milwaukee. Wanderlei, be very careful about doing these things.”