…and we specifically asked for AquaDeco to go with those brown M&Ms!
Well, that didn’t take long.
After appearing genuinely humbled after losing the second round his middleweight title fight against Anderson Silva at UFC 148, none of us were buying the idea that Chael Sonnen had been humbled by the loss and accepted the outcome. For starters, we literally saw the exact same thing happen after UFC 117. On top of that, since Saturday night there have been countless debates both on and offline over vaseline, shorts-grabbing and ‘illegal’ knees that potentially cost Chael P. Sonnen a victory against Anderson Silva. In other words, if Chael Sonnen could come up with excuses to justify his “victory” over Anderson Silva at UFC 117, it was obvious that he would have an excuse for his loss in the rematch now that there’s actually some kind of controversy surrounding the fight.
Earlier today, it was reported that Chael Sonnen’s camp filed an appeal with the Nevada Athletic Commission to overturn the result of the his bout against Anderson Silva at UFC 148 to a no-contest. As first reported by Jonathan Snowden on The MMA Show:
“Scott McQuarry, the head coach of Chael Sonnen, says they’ve started the process to file an appeal with Keith Kizer and the Nevada Athletic Commission. They believe the knee Anderson Silva threw was illegal, that the intent was to knee the face, that it did it in fact strike Chael in the face, that he got eight stitches and that he bit his tongue. They also say Anderson grabbed the cage at the point of impact. They are intending to appeal and have the fight ruled a no contest.”
Before we get back to Illegal-Kneegate, it already appears that after talking to NSAC officials, Sonnen’s coaches have already scrapped the initial plan. Instead, it looks like Sonnen will just stick with appealing to both the fans and Dana White for a third match against “The Spider.” Considering that NSAC Head Keith Kizer had no idea what the legal basis of an appeal would be, that’s probably for the best.
For a guy who complains about wasteful government spending, Chael Sonnen and company almost wasted a lot of money on a frivolous hearing.
Back to Illegal-Kneegate: The perceived illegal intent of the knee in question is not in any way, shape or form relevant, so let’s not even have that debate. The vaseline (that was wiped off of Silva immediately, mind you) didn’t seem to prevent Sonnen from taking down Silva in the first round, so how about we end that debate too? As for the shorts-grabbing, Silva was warned about it during the fight and Sonnen admitted after the fight to grabbing Silva’s shorts as well. If you wanted Yves Lavigne to separate the fighters and deduct a point from Silva, then kindly refrain from explaining how that would have prevented Chael Sonnen’s boneheaded decision to attempt a spinning backfist, allowing Anderson Silva the opportunity to finish “The America Gangster.”
As numerous fans, pundits and members of our comments section have already pointed out, this is just another instance of Chael Sonnen being his own worst enemy. He has now lost two fights against Anderson Silva due to monumental lapses in judgment, and is clinging to the idea that he is the victim of a series of illegal tactics. If Sonnen is ever going to hold a belt in the UFC – at any weight class – he needs to stop making excuses and avoid the mental breakdowns he’s been having during title fights. Also, if Sonnen’s endgame is establishing a reason for an immediate rematch, I highly doubt that the UFC will want to taint the reputation of its most dominant champion by implying that he cheated during their fight Saturday night.
And on that note, I offer one final picture of the knee. You may now resume your debate. Keep it civil, you guys.
Props: @ArielHelwani