The ongoing war of words between former Pride champion Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen continued on Tuesday night, although no fight has been scheduled between the two light heavyweights.
For the past few weeks, following his loss to Jon Jones at UFC 159, Sonnen has taken more than a few shots at Silva via social media while challenging him to a fight in the Octagon.
Most recently, Sonnen issued a 24-hour challenge aimed at Silva asking him to accept the bout against him in the UFC. Silva never responded on Twitter anyways, and on Tuesday night’s edition of UFC Tonight, Sonnen says he’s moved on and not worried about the fight any longer.
“I only follow a couple of rules in fighting, but one of them is you don’t bully a guy,” Sonnen stated. “A guy doesn’t want to fight, you don’t keep picking on him. I gave him the timeline; I was also giving it to myself—if he doesn’t answer, I’m done and I’ll move on, and I have.”
Regardless of Sonnen’s current position about the potential fight, Silva did finally respond with a statement of his own. He says he did not see anything about Sonnen’s challenge on Twitter and still hasn’t heard anything from the UFC regarding the fight actually taking place.
Silva did, however, unleash a somewhat bizarre and angry response when targeting Sonnen.
“Jon Jones and Anderson Silva have been too nice to Chael,” Silva said in the statement to UFC Tonight. “I want to suck his blood. I want to smell it. Not just fight—I want to hurt him. Chael is a joke, man. He’s going to be second forever. He’s never going to be first.”
Luckily for Silva, he didn’t have to wait too long for Sonnen to answer his call, because the former middleweight title contender also happens to serve as a co-host on the Tuesday night news magazine show.
Needless to say, Sonnen was unimpressed with Silva’s statement.
“I think the real breaking news there is that Wanderlei Silva put together a coherent sentence that somebody understood,” Sonnen commented. “But I can assure you, Wanderlei, I will not be signing a contract for you to suck on any part of me. I suggest you go to a bath and find yourself.”
While Sonnen tried to throw water on the potential fight after his Twitter challenge fell by the wayside, it would seem a grudge match pitting him against Silva could be just the fight the UFC needs to help headline one of their upcoming cards in August.
Currently the promotion has no headline or co-main event fight announced for the upcoming UFC on Fox Sports 1 card in Boston on August 17, the UFC on Fox Sports 1-2 card on August 28 in Indianapolis or UFC 164, which will be held on August 31 in Milwaukee.
A Silva vs. Sonnen fight could easily fill one of those slots if the two fighters end up being matched against each other. UFC officials have yet to confirm if the bout is being considered at this time.
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
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