Maybe it was bound to happen. After all, two years of hyper-intense public harassment would cause any one of us to snap.
And snap is exactly what Anderson Silva did yesterday. To the surprise of even Dana White, the UFC’s mild-mannered middleweight champion unleashed two years worth of suppressed fury against Chael Sonnen during a UFC 148 media conference call, spitting out a verbal tirade so smoldering, Silva’s manager Ed Soares had to lighten the load a bit in his translations.
“I’m going to break his face and every tooth in his mouth,” Silva seethed, his voice slowly rising from a murmur to a borderline roar. “I know he’s on the call listening to this. Playtime is over. There’s no more talking from him. I’m going to make him pay for everything he’s said about me, my family and my country. I’m going to beat him like his parents should have to teach him some manners. I’ll teach him those manners myself.
“No more s— talking from him. Chael Sonnen’s going to get his ass kicked like he’s never gotten his ass kicked before. What I’m going to do inside the Octagon is something that’s going to change the image of the sport. This is going to be violent. I’m going to make sure that every one of his teeth are broken, that his arms are broken and his legs are broken. He’s not going to be able to walk out of the Octagon by himself. I can guarantee that. He will need a plastic surgeon afterwards.”
Well, then.
It seems crazy to say, but Anderson actually topped Chael at his own game yesterday. Silva has been in the UFC for 7 years, and never have we seen anything remotely close to an outburst like this.
Really, it can mean only one of three things. Either Chael is in his head, and Silva will be blinded by rage during the fight — which could be good for Sonnen. Or Chael is in his head, and Silva will be blinded by rage during the fight –which could be very, very, very bad for Sonnen.
Or, of couse, Anderson could just be doing a damn good job selling the last huge pay-per-view of his career. Regardless, the year’s biggest fight somehow just got a hundred times more interesting.
5 MUST-READ STORIES
Silva explodes on Sonnen. UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva unleashed two years of pent-up fury towards Chael Sonnen before hanging up midway through a UFC 148 media conference call.
Fedor talks retirement, Lesnar. Newly retired heavyweight legend Fedor Emelianenko discussed the decision to hang up his gloves, Sunday’s M-1 Global website hoax, and the possibility of him coming out of retirement to fight former UFC champion Brock Lesnar.
UFC 147 Brazilian ratings. UFC 147 drew astounding ratings in Brazil, as over 20 million viewers and 16,643 live fans witnessed the TUF Brazil finals from Belo Horizonte.
Best of MMA Hour. Ariel Helwani returns with the second edition of The Best of The MMA Hour, featuring a line-up that includes classic interviews with Alistair Overeem, Josh Barnett, Rener Gracie, Diego Sanchez, and Chris Leben.
UFC on FX 4 ratings. Friday’s UFC event, which was headlined by Gray Maynard’s strange lightweight contest against Clay Guida, drew 1.3 million viewers to the initial FX broadcast.
MEDIA STEW
Now you know Rener Gracie can destroy a purple belt with both of his hands tied down.
With all this talk of Fedor, it’s always fun to dust off one of his old classics — like the time the big Russian fought 155-pound Shinya Aoki in an exhibition match. (HT: Reddit)
So, this definitely exists. And that’s about all I’ve got for this one. (NSFW: Hilarious swearing.)
I’ll let Danny Lane explain this fascinating piece of fight history: “Do you know the story of how the Gracies came to the USA and the whole UFC, MMA and Gracie Ju-jitsu got rolling here? Chuck (Norris) and Bob Wall visted the Gracie family and family in Rio, Brazil and experienced the training first hand and were impressed so much that Chuck wanted his Black Belts in the UFAF to learn the system. In 1988 they flew to Las Vegas and taught us for the first time. That was the beginning. Hope you enjoy this historic video clip I took of the intro and some of the training.” (via MMA Mania)
POKING THE SPIDER
7 years in the UFC and I’ve never heard Anderson talk like this before!!!
— Dana White (@danawhite) June 25, 2012
Angry Anderson is awesome!
— Jason High (@KCBanditMMA) June 25, 2012
A pissed off Anderson Silva promises not much goods for Chael Sonnen this saturday at @UFC 148! This fight tests AS honor and Sonnen’s will!
— Siyar Bahadurzada (@SiyarTheGreat) June 25, 2012
(Note: UFC 148 is actually next Saturday.)
PREPARATION
RT @MightyMouseUFC Already getting my training in #instantclassic twitter.com/MightyMouseUFC…Haha train hard! #FlyweightsRule
— Joseph Benavidez (@JoeJitsu) June 24, 2012
WHAT THE…
Yo @hypeordie ,,, remember this!.?? #served instagr.am/p/MUbZagLs_5/
— SKYSKRAPE (@TAPOUTSKRAPE) June 26, 2012
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Monday, June 25, 2012):
N/A
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day sees SSReporters brush up the ghosts of UFC’s past for: The Dramatic Descent of Tyson Griffin
It’s June 2012, and Tyson Griffin, aged just 28, is currently teetering on the edge of complete irrelevancy. He’s 1-4 in his last 5. A stark contrast from his days as a lightweight contender and one of the most exciting fighters in the sport. He had the striking, wrestling, grappling, physique – the dude rivals Ben Henderson for “really muscular legs” – and chin to really make a push for UFC gold, but it never materalized. So what happened? Let me take you back a little bit to summarize Tyson’s UFC career…..
It was almost five years ago to the day in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Tyson Griffin burst onto the MMA scene with his epic back-and-forth fight with Clay Guida at UFC 72, earning both the split-decision win and Fight of the Year honors. It was the 2nd tremendous fight in a row for Tyson, having come off a thrilling “hidden classic” against Frankie Edgar on the preliminary card of UFC 67, which Edgar won by unanimous decision. That particular fight was so entertaining it made the PPV broadcast as time-filler. Griffin would go onto have ANOTHER Fight of the Night showing later that year at UFC 76: Knockout, edging out Thiago Tavares to open up the televised pay-per-view.
Through his memorable 2007, Griffin became a regular main-card fighter and a potential lightweight contender in a division that would later see BJ Penn commit 3rd degree ass-kickings of both Sean Sherk and Joe Stevenson. He rattled off two more wins against Brazilians Gleison Tibau and Marcus Aurelio, but neither fight was anything to write home about. In another Fight of the Night occasion, his chance to stake his claim as a top contender was halted when Sean Sherk outstruck and outwrestled him towards a decision victory. Griffin would follow this up with FOTN honor #5, an entertaining striking and grappling contest with Brazilian Rafael Dos Anjos … are you noticing a pattern here? Griffin went on a run of seven fights (amassing a 5-2 record) going the distance, and the main concern with Tyson was that while he was an entertaining talent, he was incapable of finishing fights at a high-level. He had not recorded a stoppage win since an easy submission over David Lee in his debut with the UFC. Well those criticisms went away after he brutally knocked out former title challenger Hermes Franca, something only some Joe Schmo many years ago in the regional circuits had ever done.
Not only was Griffin’s 2009 a memorable one much like 2007, he had achieved his first KO in the UFC but he looked to be back on course to contend for BJ Penn’s belt, which was then being used to beat Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez like a drum.
Then everything changed.
Found something perfect for the Morning Report? Just hit me on Twitter @shaunalshatti and we’ll include it in tomorrow’s post.