One day after middleweight champion Anderson Silva left Chael Sonnen, as well as the rest of the mixed martial arts world, speechless, the UFC’s mouth that roared was back in action.
On Monday, Silva went on a memorable tirade during a UFC 148 conference call, calling Sonnen a criminal, a cheater, and detailing graphic and violent hints about what he planned on doing to Sonnen in the Octagon at UFC 148 on July 7.
Sonnen’s didn’t have much of a response on Monday, but Tuesday night, he called into Fuel TV’s “UFC Tonight” and returned the verbal fire.
“A couple things he didn’t say he was going to do,” said Sonnen. “Starting with beating me, starting with breaking my spirit, starting with leaving with a victory, because he’s not.”
Sonnen, who lost a memorable battle with Silva at UFC 117 via fifth-round submission after dominating the first four rounds, brushed off the champion’s threats of physical harm.
“Well it was nice to see the real Anderson Silva come through. Ya know, the guy’s a dirtbag, like I’ve told you for years. He made a lot of statements like he’s gonna break my teeth, he’s gonna break my jaw and break my skull. I’ve fought 49 men,” he said. “It’s not like I’ve never been to the orthodontist before, it’s not like I’ve ever had my jaw re-set. It’s not like I’ve never had to have my scalp stapled shut in ER. I can take the staples in the head and all this other crap. We’re in a fist fight, we’re in a steel cage, on [July 7] anyway. I can’t of expect it. I think it was more like he was saying ‘I’m going to give you a knuckle sandwich.’ I’m kind of sitting there going, well, duh, we’re in a cage fight, dummy.”
Sonnen didn’t address Silva’s cheating allegations. But he did say that he’s not going to back down from his rival’s strong words.
“I don’t care about being in his head, there’s no gamesmanship here,” Sonnen said. “It was very nice to see the true Anderson Silva come through. … I’m a gangster from West Linn, Ore. and I’ve been fighting for years. He thinks I’m going to be upset because I found what I was looking for? I mean listen, there’s a venue where we can figure this out and on 7/7 at 7 pm in the [West] in the octagon. if he wants to meet my demands, fine, if he doesn’t, I’m going to shoot a double and run him into that cage, shoot a double and put him on his prissy little ass and sit there for 25 minutes until he gives up.”
Nor did Sonnen drop his charge that the skills possessed by the man most consider the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter to are “amateur.”
“If anyone’s taken a boxing class, they tell you to keep your hands up and your chin down. He goes out there with his chin up and his hands down. That’s amateur as hell. … What good does it do me to sub a guy who sucks? It’s just very hard to hide the fact that he sucks.”