Former Pride champion Wanderlei Silva isn’t happy with the way he’s being portrayed on the third season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil and blames the production team for selective editing of the show.
“The Axe Murderer” expressed his displeasure with what audiences have seen from him on the reality series in an interview with MMA Fighting:
They edited a lot of things, and unfortunately, the production decided to paint me as the villain…But that is not right, because he said horrible things about us, and disrespected me at every moment during filming. This good guy you’re watching on television is not how things are for real…Behind what happened there is the motives and the reason why I was mad that day…I called him a m———-r, but I don’t speak English. I didn’t really know what it means and I don’t consider it a cuss word.
Silva was supported by just 30 percent of his countrymen according to a recent poll, which was taken after his infamous TUF brawl with archnemesis/opposing head coach Chael Sonnen, prompting him to release a video claiming that Sonnen is racist.
Sonnen, as usual, had no problem responding to the video, but was was succinct with his rebuttal this time around:
https://t.co/ZhvcV2JTev TNX @wandfc . DO SOMETHING INTERESTING AND ILL MAKE A VID OF YOU TOO:)
— chael sonnen (@sonnench) April 30, 2014
“The American Gangster” remains adamant that Silva won’t make it to their scheduled UFC 175 showdown on July 5, so he has been pushing for a fight with ex-middleweight champion Rich Franklin instead, per Fox Sports.
Sonnen is 3-4 in his past seven fights, though three of those losses came against then-middleweight champ Anderson Silva (twice) and UFC light heavyweight titleholder Jon Jones.
Coincidentally, Silva has the same record in his last seven matchups inside the Octagon, most recently delivering a brutal knockout over Brian Stann at UFC on FUEL 8 last March.
Is selective editing truly to blame for Silva’s erratic behavior on the TUF set, or has Sonnen simply gotten into his head at an extreme level?
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com