Chael Sonnen may have lost to Anderson Silva on paper, but the self-proclaimed “People’s Champ” truly believes he walked away from the bout a winner.
The brash Oregon native was recently a guest on Bruce Buffer’s It’s Time show on the Sherdog Radio Network, where he had strong words regarding his UFC 117 loss to Silva and the MMA scoring system.
“In what parallel scoring system do you punch a man 300 times, he hits you 11 times, wraps his leg around your head for eight seconds and they declare him the winner?” Sonnen asked during the show.
“That doesn’t make you a winner. In no form of society, from the jungle to the streets, does that make you a winner. I’m the people’s champion. I’m the linear champion.
“I’m the best middleweight there’s ever been, and I am the UFC’s true champion.”
The Silva and Sonnen feud has gone on for over a year. It came to a climax when Silva submitted Sonnen in the fifth round of their August 2010 bout after getting dominated for 23 minutes.
The late fight heroics have led to continued verbal exchanges between the two that seem to capture headlines on a weekly basis. Sonnen said on the Sherdog show that he outright doesn’t like Silva or anyone from his Black House gym.
When it comes to Chael Sonnen, what you see is what you get. There isn’t a facade or cheap hope for fight promotion. Sonnen truly believes in what he says. If not, he simply wouldn’t say it. As Sonnen said on the program, he doesn’t “manufacture conflict.”
Sonnen goes on to point out welterweight contender Josh Koscheck, who went out of his to get under Georges St-Pierre’s skin before their title bout in December 2010.
After months of talk, Koscheck retracted his comments after losing a lopsided unanimous decision to St-Pierre. In his post-fight interview, Koscheck admitted that all of the trash talk was only meant to hype the fight.
Despite being a long-time friend of Koscheck’s, Sonnen said he sees something incredibly wrong with this picture:
I’ve known Josh Koscheck for 13 years. He’s got my full support. He’s a friend of mine. If I had the ability, I would have fired him after the St-Pierre fight.
Not because of the beyond atrocious performance he put on, but [for] the fact that he built the fight up––he hyped it, and he grabbed the microphone and tells everybody, ‘Hey, I didn’t mean that.’ Somewhere in fighting that’s OK? That is a fraudulent criminal act in my opinion.
Sonnen calls fighters out when he truly has a problem with them, but “The All-American” Brian Stann doesn’t seem to be one of those guys. Both middleweights are scheduled to meet on Oct. 8 at UFC 136 in a bout that could determine a new No. 1 contender for the UFC title.
“I’m not going to manufacture a conflict against Brian Stann. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a great guy. He’s a world champion,” Sonnen said.
“He and I need to compete with each other. I’m the middleweight champion of the world, and Dana White and I together have deemed him the No. 1 contender for my championship. I will give him his opportunity on Oct. 8. That’s it. Win or lose, we will shake hands, and we will carry on life as men and as friends.”
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