Author: Jeremy Botter

UFC 148: Silva vs. Sonnen 2 Is the Most Anticipated Fight in UFC History

I know that headline is fairly bold.We’ve had plenty of highly anticipated fights over the long history of the UFC, and some of them have ultimately ended up being absolutely gigantic fights.The second meeting between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, back a…

I know that headline is fairly bold.

We’ve had plenty of highly anticipated fights over the long history of the UFC, and some of them have ultimately ended up being absolutely gigantic fights.

The second meeting between Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, back at UFC 100, comes to mind. That was a fight with plenty of history, buildup and verbal sparring between the two combatants. And it delivered in spades on pay-per-view, to the tune of 1.6 million pay-per-view buys—the largest in UFC history by a wide margin.

But bear with me for a second, if you will, and I’ll explain why I think this fight is more anticipated than even Lesnar/Mir 2. 

 

The History

Chael Sonnen started his extremely public tirades toward Anderson Silva somewhere in the vicinity of February 2010, shortly after he’d defeated Nate Marquardt at UFC 109.

For Sonnen, the verbal blasts were a way of getting himself noticed in the media, but there was a larger story at play: Anderson Silva didn’t have a new challenger just yet, and Sonnen wanted the spot.

So Sonnen started calling Silva out in the press. This was new and notable. Nobody ever talked about Anderson Silva in that manner. He was considered by almost everyone to be the best fighter in the world. On top of that, he was quiet, reserved and respectful. He was the picture of what everyone wants a martial artist to be. 

Sonnen got noticed, and he also got the title shot. You know how that one played out: Sonnen delivered a beating to Silva for nearly 25 minutes, only to succumb to a triangle choke at the end that scored Silva the win. Sonnen gave Silva the toughest challenge he’d had in years, but he still went out the loser.

Sonnen didn’t stop talking, though. Despite his troubles with the California State Athletic Commission—and the one-year suspension that followed—Sonnen continued talking. He barely took a break. 

Sonnen ultimately came back to the cage and scored a dominant win over Brian Stann, following it up with a win over Michael Bisping. He’d earned a second title shot with two wins over tough challengers, and despite Silva’s insistence that Sonnen didn’t deserve another crack at the belt, Sonnen was named the top contender.

All the while, Sonnen continued berating Silva as often and as loudly as he could.

 

The Marketing

Most of the buildup for the rematch was handled by Sonnen, a long-time pro wrestling fan who understands the importance of hooking fans and making them anticipate fights. 

That all changed during Monday’s UFC 148 media conference call, when Silva finally unleashed two years of pent-up aggression:

“I’m going to break every bone in his face and all of the teeth in his mouth,” Silva said. “He’s a criminal that doesn’t even deserve to be in the UFC. I am going to beat his ass out of the UFC. He will never want to fight again once I’m done with him.”

The reaction from Silva is what Sonnen had been looking for from the beginning. Every dancer needs a partner. Until the conference call, Silva had been unwilling to respond to much of what Sonnen said, leaving the marketing as a one-sided push to drive interest in the fight. 

That all changed. And from the sound of Silva’s voice, he’s not doing it to market a fight. He’s doing it because he’s legitimately pissed off. 

But the end result is the same—fan interest in the rematch will go through the roof. 

You can expect a giant marketing push from the UFC over the next 10 days, and don’t be surprised to hear Silva’s heated comments replayed constantly. And, for only the second time since Zuffa signed their television deal with FOX, the network will play the Countdown preview show for UFC 148. 

 

The Public Reach

UFC president Dana White said that Zuffa is expecting historic numbers for the event. 

“We’re expecting UFC 100-level numbers for this one,” White said on the conference call.

It’s hard to say if UFC 148 will ultimately reach those numbers. But the UFC will benefit from the lack of other major sporting events taking place on that weekend. For the first time in quite awhile, the UFC will be the only major game in town, and that should lead to elevated pay-per-view buyers from sports fans looking for something to do.

The fight may not do the kind of escalated numbers that UFC 100 did. But the UFC’s landscape has changed drastically since that fight took place.

Lesnar, the mainstream super-draw, is gone from the sport. The UFC runs far more events than they did when UFC 100 took place, leading to a product that feels watered-down at times.

But for hardcore fight fans, and even for mainstream fans, Silva vs. Sonnen 2 is the ultimate grudge match. With two years of history and true bad blood between both combatants, it’s the perfect storm of opportunity and marketing.

Silva is touted as the best fighter in the world, and Sonnen is the one guy who has taken him to the limit since his UFC career started.

When all is said and done, I fully expect UFC 148 to be among the biggest UFC events in history. Will it be the biggest? It’s doubtful. But it may just be the most memorable.

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Anderson Silva Unleashes Years of Pent-Up Anger at Chael Sonnen

Going into today’s UFC 148 conference call, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Anderson Silva. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I should expect Silva to participate in the call at all.I heard a rumor over the weekend that Silva would not be doing any more publ…

Going into today’s UFC 148 conference call, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Anderson Silva. In fact, I wasn’t sure if I should expect Silva to participate in the call at all.

I heard a rumor over the weekend that Silva would not be doing any more public relations work for this fight and, as such, would not be involved in the call today at all. 

Instead, what we got was a fired-up Anderson Silva unlike any we’ve ever seen before.

A few choice quotes from Silva’s conference call:

I’m going to break every bone in his face and all of the teeth in his mouth.

He’s a criminal that doesn’t even deserve to be in the UFC. I am going to beat his ass out of the UFC. He will never want to fight again once I’m done with him.

What I’m going to do to Chael will change the image of the sport. I’m going to break his arms, his legs and every one of his teeth.

I’m going to beat him the way his parents should have beaten him.

As you can see, Silva wasn’t mincing words. Sonnen, the wordsmith who has done so much to hype this fight (largely on his own, while Silva remained a passive bystander) was overshadowed completely on the call.

And you know what? I suspect Sonnen is incredibly happy about that right now. He finally has a dance partner on the promotional side.

But from the tone of Silva’s voice, he’s not promoting a fight—he’s pissed off, and he finally decided to lay it on the line and say exactly how he feels. He’s out for blood, bones and humiliation.

And that’s a pretty scary thing.

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Dana White Says Wanderlei Will Be with the UFC for a Long Time

Plenty of people thought Rich Franklin would absolutely crush Wanderlei Silva in their UFC 147 main event on Saturday night.I’ll throw myself in that group. I figured it would be a strong moral victory if Silva and his ailing chin survived the first tw…

Plenty of people thought Rich Franklin would absolutely crush Wanderlei Silva in their UFC 147 main event on Saturday night.

I’ll throw myself in that group. I figured it would be a strong moral victory if Silva and his ailing chin survived the first two rounds. 

Not only did Silva survive the first two rounds, he nearly finished Franklin in the second with a late-round barrage of old-school “Axe Murderer” flurries. And though he’d come out on the losing side for the seventh time in his last UFC fights, it doesn’t really matter.

Silva proved he can still hang in the UFC. Maybe not with the best of the best, but at least with some of the better competition that middleweight has to offer.

Dana White agreed while being interviewed on Fuel TV’s post-fight show:

Wanderlei almost won that fight. It is tough to say. He used to be my arch nemesis over at Pride. But since he came to the UFC, he has been great, acting like he has been in the UFC for a long time. He has been honest and great and he is going to be with the UFC for a long time, whether he is fighting or not.

It’s good to hear that Silva will eventually get the Liddell treatment. No, I’m not talking about the part where Dana calls him up and forces him to retire. I’m talking about the idea that he’ll get a cushy no-show job with the UFC after his career is done, and he’ll be able to continue drawing a paycheck for the rest of his life.

But knowing Silva, he’ll probably show up at the Zuffa offices over on Sahara each and every day.

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UFC on FX 4 Results: Post-Fight Stock Report

It was a night of exciting fights, and then there was the main event. UFC president Dana White said it best when he tweeted the following while the Gray Maynard/Clay Guida bout was still in progress at UFC on FX 4 on Friday night:
First time I ha…

It was a night of exciting fights, and then there was the main event. 

UFC president Dana White said it best when he tweeted the following while the Gray Maynard/Clay Guida bout was still in progress at UFC on FX 4 on Friday night:

But before that atrocity of a main event (or game of tag) went down, we got plenty of thrilling action from the prelims all the way to the television broadcast. Let’s take a quick look at who’s moving up and who is being sent tumbling down in the UFC on FX 4 Stock Report.

Begin Slideshow

Paul Daley Regrets Hitting Josh Koscheck After UFC 113 Fight

Paul Daley’s always been one of the most interesting characters in mixed martial arts—at least from my point of view. It’s not really that he’s a great martial artist—because he’s not. But he does have that one-punch knockout power and…

Paul Daley’s always been one of the most interesting characters in mixed martial arts—at least from my point of view. 

It’s not really that he’s a great martial artist—because he’s not. But he does have that one-punch knockout power and one hell of a temper to go along with it. Those two traits make him a must-watch in my book, even if his wrestling defense has failed him at important points in his career.

Obviously, one of those points was his UFC 113 bout with Josh Koscheck. Koscheck smothered Daley for three rounds, frustrating him on the way to winning a unanimous decision. After the fight, Daley famously sucker-punched Koscheck and punched his own ticket out of the UFC. 

Does Daley regret the incident? He discussed it on last night’s episode of MMA Uncensored Live:

I do, I do. But, you know, everything happens for a reason. I’m here now, in New York and, yeah, I feel great.

Why did Daley punch Koscheck, anyway? We’ve never gotten a satisfying answer to that question, other than sheer (and understandable) frustration:

You know, it was a very frustrating fight to be in. I wasn’t thinking much. I sort of had flashbacks to my old days, and I just thought, ‘This guy’s punked me out on national TV. I just have to get my own back.’ So I did, and it didn’t work out very well.

It was back and forth. He’d say something, I’d say something. I think the final thing that was said, I said, ‘When this is done, when I get up, I’m gonna hit you.’ And I don’t think he believed me. I told him that. He’ll tell you that. I stick to my word.

Daley also said that he and UFC president Dana White—who famously said that Daley would never be welcome back in the UFC—are not on speaking terms, and he’s not sure they’ll ever make amends.

Daley has a chance to turn the page with his Bellator debut next month. 

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Chuck Liddell Says Shogun Rua Is Not One of the Great Fighters

File this one under “curious”: Chuck Liddell thinks that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is not one of the greatest fighters of all-time.”Shogun is not among the great fighters, and never will be,” said ‘The Iceman’. “He needs much more to reach the level of And…

File this one under “curious”: Chuck Liddell thinks that Mauricio “Shogun” Rua is not one of the greatest fighters of all-time.

“Shogun is not among the great fighters, and never will be,” said ‘The Iceman’. “He needs much more to reach the level of Anderson Silva, for example.”

The reason it’s interesting, of course, is that Rua knocked Liddell cleanly unconscious when the two fought back in 2009.

Perhaps Liddell doesn’t remember that fight? He was in the middle of losing five of six fights, after all, and a little memory impairment can come with the territory when you’re violently knocked out four times in the later stages of your career.

Look—there is no question that Shogun is one of the greatest light heavyweights in the history of the sport.

When Liddell was tearing through the UFC with wild abandon, Shogun was doing the same thing in Japan. They were yin and yang, trapped on opposite sides of the ocean, with fans across the world wishing they could someday see two of the greatest cinch up their gloves and go to war.

Is Shogun on Anderson Silva’s level? No. That’s absurd. But Rua is absolutely one of the greats in the history of the sport, and it’s borderline asinine to think anything otherwise.

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