Author: John Heinis

After some recent controversy, all signs pointed to UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen being in Yushin Okami’s corner when he had his title shot against Anderson Silva at UFC 134.

However, it looks like Sonnen’s plane ticket to Rio will go to waste.

MMA Junkie spoke with an unnamed source,whom had knowledge regarding the Praetorian, a Brazil-based MMA brand which is one of Okami’s sponsors. 

The source, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, said that if Sonnen attended, the Praetorian would discontinue its sponsorship of Okami. 

“There’s a line of people that want to kick his ass,” the source said, when explaining the rationalization behind the decision. 

While that piece of news is not all that shocking, many will agree that the next piece of information is.

According to MMA Junkie, friends of Sonnen over in Brazil brought the Team Quest standout’s attention to a local media report.

“A police chief threatened to arrest him on sight if he showed. The official cited a law that makes disparaging the national identity a crime,” MMA Junkie reported. 

Sonnen retaliated by saying “You don’t have freedom of speech in Brazil; put it like that.”

Brazil based MMA manager Alex Davis refuted the police chief’s claim, stating that:

“Brazilian authorities would not arrest Sonnen for anything he said. They would defend him. But he is talking about people that a whole generation of fighters worship.”

Sonnen has reserved his verbal war of words against Brazilian fighters, for the most part, to team Black House members including Lyoto Machida, the Nogueira brothers, featherweight champ Jose Aldo and of course reigning middleweight champ Anderson Silva. 

Despite not being able to support his friend and training partner in person, Sonnen has shown no problem backing away from the situation given the circumstances.

“I only want to be there to help him,” Sonnen said.

“I don’t need to see the show. I can watch the show on TV. I was going exclusively in support of Yushin, and frankly, it’s been headed this way for a long time. It’s been headed the direction of, ‘Hey, this is becoming a distraction.”

Sonnen then acknowledged that August 27 is Okami’s time to shine, not his.  

“This fight isn’t about me. I’m not involved. I’m here to lend you support. But I don’t want things thrown at what will unintentionally be him while he’s in the ring or we’re going to the ring. This is serious business. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it’s not my place to disturb it or shift any type of attention to me. This is his moment, his night, his time to be the world champ.”

The only man who has given Anderson Silva a run for his money in years, Sonnen has a chance to earn another title shot with a win over Brian Stann at UFC 136. 

However, a recent report indicates that Sonnen could be pulled from UFC 136 in favor of a rematch with Silva on November 12, the UFC’s first event on Fox. 

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Since Chael Sonnen’s California fighter’s license expired on June 29, 2011, it basically gave him the green light to compete in the Octagon again.

The always outspoken 185-pounder has given a plethora of interviews since then, and one point that he has emphasized again and again is that he will be in friend and training partner Yushin Okami’s corner when he takes on Anderson Silva at UFC 134. 

This is a bit surprising, given Sonnen more or less declaring war against Brazil due to his feuds with Wanderlei Silva, Lyoto Machida, the reigning UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva, and to a lesser extent, even Jose Aldo.

Nevertheless, the self proclaimed “American Gangster” told interviewer after interviewer that “they love me in Brazil,” and that nothing would prevent him from watching his friend defeat Anderson Silva up close and personal.

In the past few days, this situation has gotten very interesting.

A Facebook event entitled “Lichamento Do Chael Sonnen,” which in English means “Lynching of Chael Sonnen” was recently made public.

The event description, translated to English by Bloody Elbow, states, “Guys, everyone is aware of what this insect has been spewing about Brazil, the fighters, of the people of this country, of our culture.”

“I think we should give him a ‘warm welcome’ when he comes to attend UFC Rio on the 27th, since Brazilians carries the fame of being sympathetic, hospitable, warm people, how about a big party for our friend Chael Sonnen?”

As of this writing, 5,066 people are attending and 12,169 invitees are awaiting reply.

While there is no reason to believe that Sonnen will actually be lynched if he attends UFC 134, it seems that he has been inaccurate in his assessment that he’s a fan favorite in Brazil.

As to be expected at this point, Sonnen took to Twitter to respond to the event:

“Please, FB nerds, no group has the strength to lynch me. I’m a Republican; we run on neither blood nor oxygen.”

Normally, that would be that, but this story continues to have legs. 

Apparently, SPORTV spoke with the coaches at Team Quest on Sunday, August 21, and while no direct quotes were released, a translation of the article says that Sonnen will NOT be at UFC 134.

The most telling quote, once again translated by Bloody Elbow, reads, “However, the coaches of Team Quest denied that Sonnen has or will come to Brazil.

“According to a post by the official UFC Brazil twitter, Sonnen was just ‘trolling’ and will not be in Rio for the fight. Sonnen has a fight scheduled for Oct. 8 at UFC 136 against Brian Stann, and will be focused for training for the occasion.”

Sonnen is still on probation from his money laundering case, so it is possible that he may not be allowed to leave the country.

However, on August 18, Sonnen tweeted, “Going to train in the worst conditions to make this fight even easier. Long story short, Rio on Friday! See you in the streets, turkeys.”

Then, on August 21, Sonnen addressed the report once again via Twitter. This time, he was not as forthcoming, though. “Am I going to Rio……. ‘The greatest trick the Devil ever did, was getting the world to believe he didn’t exist,’” he wrote.

So by quoting Keyser Soze, is Sonnen telling us that he will indeed be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 27?

Looks like only time will tell, but as usual, Sonnen has a significant number of fight fans heavily anticipating his next move

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