The often controversial UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen has made waves in the media once more.
Earlier today he was a guest on TSN’s Off the Record with Michael Landsberg, and let’s just say his time on the show, or lack there of, made for interesting television.
Landsberg is a Canadian sports journalist who has been the host of Off the Record for a few thousand shows now. As an interviewer, he doesn’t usually pull any punches, and won’t back down when trying to get the answers to his questions.
Let’s just say that Sonnen wasn’t overly appreciative of Landsberg’s style.
Sonnen wasn’t cooperative in answering any questions and chose to walk off the set before the interview was over. Watch all the action yourself and pass your own judgement. Was Sonnen serious, or was this a case of Sonnen simply being Sonnen?
“… and he [Sonnen] left never said another word, that’s never happened before” Landsberg said at the end of the clip. “I kind of figured he was going to leave about halfway through it and to be honest it was probably an appropriate ending. So here’s the offer Chael, let’s try it again unless you refuse to talk about Anderson Silva, then we’ll take a pass.”
Refusing to talk about Anderson Silva—the current UFC middleweight champion who defeated Sonnen in August, 2010, via triangle choke—was definitely an underlying theme throughout the interview.
Landsberg came off a little chippy at the beginning of the clip, and it seemed to have set the tone for the rest of the interview.
The main point Landsberg wanted to clarify had to do with the challenge Sonnen issued Silva after his win over Brian Stann at UFC 136.
“Anderson Silva, you absolutely suck” Sonnen told Joe Rogan after his fight with Stann. “I’m calling you out [Anderson] Silva, but we’re upping the stakes. I beat you, you leave the division. You beat me, I will leave the UFC forever.”
Landsberg pointed out to Sonnen that shortly after issuing the challenge, he told Jim Rome that the offer expired and that he backed down from the challenge. Sonnen didn’t appreciate that.
“You might want to take the bass out of your tone, I’m not sure you know who your talking to here, but I’ve never backed down from anything. You better check your facts” Sonnen told Landsberg.
Despite taking shots and refusing to cooperate with Landsberg, Sonnen had it in his mind to rile up more than a journalist in this interview.
“Is that how you guys do business in Canada? Cause in my country, that created business. Offers expire” Sonnen said. “I made him [Silva] an offer. Apparently it didn’t work. He didn’t accept it. It’s not that I backed down, but apparently I need to present him with a new offer. You guys probably don’t do that in socialism, but in America, in a capitalistic society, that is how things works.”
This is nothing new from Sonnen. He likes to upset the biggest fans of the sport. He did it with the Brazilians, and now he is doing it with Canadians.
From there, the interview took a bunch of interesting turns involving the Nogueira brothers, Sonnen not caring if he loses to Silva in a second fight, Sonnen on fighting St-Pierre, until finally, he decided just to walk away.
Add this to the chapter of Sonnen’s book of insane ways to act with the media.
It will be interesting to see how the Canadian fans will react to this, and what will be more interesting is to see if this recent outburst will do anything toward setting up a rematch between him and Silva.
Maybe the UFC can set up the rematch in Montreal or Toronto and we’ll hear more boos than when Josh Koscheck fought Georges St-Pierre in Montreal.
Leon Horne is a writer for Bleacher Report and is part of the B/R MMA interview team, Follow @Leon_Horne
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com