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UFC middleweight champ Anderson ‘The Spider’ Silva (31-4) is expected to face Chael Sonnen this summer in Brazil for his next title defense, a rematch of their August 2010 bout at UFC 117.
Fans know Sonnen to be quite the trash-talker, which has helped to increase the amount of interest for all of his fights, but more particularly the rematch with Silva.
‘The Spider’ though, feels that all of Sonnen’s talk is actually “bad for the sport” of mixed martial arts and says that Sonnen has crossed the line by talking about his family.
Speaking to ESPNRAdio1100/98.9 FM, Silva and manager Ed Soares were very critical of Sonnen.
“Yeah of course, Chael talks too much. He talked about my family. He’s got no respect for my wife. No respect for the people in Brazil. It’s a problem,” Silva said. “I understand it’s a promotion, but this is no promotion. This is bad. I don’t like this. The people in Brazil don’t like this. It’s bad for the sport.”
Soares brought it a little stronger.
“He can say whatever he wants to say, but he has to be prepared to face everything that he’s saying when he steps inside the ring in June. I think Chael is going to experience something he’s never experienced before,” Soares said. “[…] He’s going to feel such an intense pressure walking into that stadium with probably 55,000 fans … he’s going to feel that.”
Silva and Soares also talked about the release of UFC Undisputed 3, the work that was done to mimic Silva as a fighter, and more.