Chael Sonnen Respects Brian Stann, Tips Hat to Anderson Silva

After 14 months away from the Octagon due to a variety of issues, Chael Sonnen, 25-11-1 (4-4 in the UFC) returns to action next Saturday at UFC 136. Sonnen, who last fought at UFC 117 where he was moments away from dethroning middleweight champion Ande…

After 14 months away from the Octagon due to a variety of issues, Chael Sonnen, 25-11-1 (4-4 in the UFC) returns to action next Saturday at UFC 136.

Sonnen, who last fought at UFC 117 where he was moments away from dethroning middleweight champion Anderson Silva before falling to a fifth-round submission, now faces the ultra tough Brian Stann (11-3 MMA, 5-2 UFC).

In addition to Stann’s top five ranking in the middleweight division, he’s a decorated war hero who was awarded a Silver Star (the nation’s third-highest award for valor in combat) in 2006 for successfully leading 42 Marines in, and out, of battle. Needless to say, Sonnen holds a high amount of respect for his opponent.

“Nobody wants to fight Brian, but somebody’s got to,” Sonnen today said during an UFC media call.

“Our paths have to cross. We’re just in the same weight class, it’s not that big of a pool and he keeps whipping everybody. If he quit beating everybody, I wouldn’t have to fight him. But he decided to go out and become one of the top guys. I’ve done my part and put my time in and I’m up there too, so our paths have to cross.”

Sonnen’s time away from competition certainly isn’t ideal for a fighter who’s widely regarded as the No. 2 middleweight in the world. But the upside off the layoff for Sonnen is that he has a newfound appreciation for the opportunity to compete.

He continued, “The happy part is, this is what I want to do and I got held out of it for a while. I’ve always been grateful for these opportunities, but I think I’m a little more grateful now. Appreciative would be a much stronger feeling that I’m having, to make up for the excitement.”

After all, who really wants to fight an American hero? Add in the fact that Stann has won back-to-back fights over Chris Leben and Jorge Santiago and it’s easy to see why Sonnen holds a large amount of respect for his opponent.

It’s believed that the winner of the bout will be the next challenge for Silva. While Sonnen and Silva certainly do not see eye-to-eye, the champion’s second-round knockout of Sonnen’s teammate Yushin Okami this past August in Rio has earned him a bit of recognition.

“It’s getting harder and harder to deny he should be shown that appreciation,” Sonnen said. “He ducked Okami for years, but he did finally get in there and he made it look easy. So, I think you’ve got to look at that. If you’re asking if I’d ever concede that Anderson’s better than me, no. I would refer you to the tape (of their fight at UFC 117). I think he and I are vastly different and that I could come down a lot and still be ahead of him.

“I also think he ducks and dodges opponents constantly, but his wins and losses speak for themselves. The fact of the matter, whether I like to admit this or not, is he’s done a better job than anybody, done a better job than me, and he is the champion. It doesn’t mean I’m going to quit poking my finger in his chest, but at some point I think fairness needs to kick in, too, and you need to look at what he’s done and tip your hat to him a little bit.”

For additional information on UFC 136 follow Joshua Carey on Twitter.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

UFC 136: Jose Aldo Ready To Defend His Gold Against Veteran Florian

When he left World Extreme Cagefighting as its final featherweight champion, many expected Jose Aldo (19-1) to be the first man not named Urijah Faber to come from the promotion and gain mainstream success in the UFC.His dynamic striking, engaging pers…

When he left World Extreme Cagefighting as its final featherweight champion, many expected Jose Aldo (19-1) to be the first man not named Urijah Faber to come from the promotion and gain mainstream success in the UFC.

His dynamic striking, engaging personality and seeming invincibility in the 145lbs. realm provided the fuel, all he had to do was put it together.

Booked to fight on New Year’s Day 2011, Aldo had to pull out of his first defense of the newly-created UFC featherweight title due to injury. He was re-booked to defend against Mark Hominick at UFC 129 in Toronto, where the biggest crowd in North American MMA history saw what he was all about.

A five round war against the home favourite Hominick ensued, a memorable scrap that had Rogers Centre bouncing and made both combatants $129,000 richer as a result of matching ‘Fight of the Night’ bonuses.

“It couldn’t have been a much better night. Fighting in the UFC for the first time and defending my title for the first time was great.”

Now, in his second defense—another that was rescheduled due to injury—Aldo will see veteran contender Kenny Florian across the cage. Florian, a longtime staple of the UFC, dropped to featherweight after two failed attempts to win gold at lightweight.

Aldo has great respect for the challenger, and doesn’t take offense to a notion many have that Florian is moving down solely to take his title away.

“It’s a natural transition for Kenny, a lot of guys move up and down in weight. I’m focused on my training, I respect Kenny, I don’t take it personally.”

For Florian, the fight is a chance at cementing his legacy as a champion, instead of the best bridesmaid the UFC has ever seen. Aldo has a legacy of his own to protect, seen by many as a top pound-for-pounder and a man who could reign atop the division for as long as he sees fit.

However, after a video of Aldo’s battle with cutting weight for the Hominick fight recently surfaced online,  the possibility that he may elect to compete at a higher weight class seems to be growing more realistic.

“Since I started training martial arts, going back to my jiu-jitsu days, I’ve always been cutting a lot of weight. I’m comfortable now at 25 years old cutting that weight, but there may come a time when I’m older that I have to look at going to lightweight. Right now though, I’m okay cutting the weight. Before [UFC 129] we were working on putting on muscle mass, that might have been why that weight cut was a little bit more.”

Regardless of where his future lies and what his plans are, the violent Brazilian has one task at hand at the moment, that of a very crafty, very talented veteran on October 8. Kenny Florian is no joke for anyone, and Aldo knows what he’s up against.

“I’ve fought taller guys, guys with longer reach. All I can do is expect to impose my gameplan and win the fight.”

The talking is done. All that’s left is to lock the cage door and see which man is better. The champion believes it’s him, and he’ll look to prove it at UFC 136.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Chael Sonnen Mellows Ahead of UFC 136, Still Says He’s Better Than Anderson Silva

Filed under: UFC, NewsThe last time we saw Chael Sonnen before a fight, calling him outspoken would have been a massive understatement.

Ahead of his UFC middleweight title fight against champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117 in August 2010, Sonnen was a …

Filed under: ,

The last time we saw Chael Sonnen before a fight, calling him outspoken would have been a massive understatement.

Ahead of his UFC middleweight title fight against champion Anderson Silva at UFC 117 in August 2010, Sonnen was a whirlwind of controversial comments, outlandish outcries and, well, near lunacy.

Sonnen came closer than anyone before him in the UFC to stopping Silva, but his submission loss was followed by a suspension for elevated testosterone levels. And that was followed by a plea deal for money laundering in a mortgage fraud case. Is it possible that Sonnen has mellowed out?

Brian Stann, Sonnen’s opponent at UFC 136 next Saturday in Houston, thinks it’s a case of selective mellowing based on who Sonnen is fighting.

“I told everybody from the start I didn’t think (the trash talk) was going to happen,” Stann said Friday on a media call for the pay-per-view. “I said this a couple times. I believe Chael is very genuine when he says if he has a problem with somebody, he’ll speak it. If he doesn’t have a problem with somebody, he won’t. You saw his fights against Nate Marquardt, Dan Miller and Yushin Okami, he didn’t have anything to say about those guys. He spoke about the fight. So it wasn’t surprising to me at all that didn’t happen. And I wouldn’t have taken it personally, anyway. I really think that our skill sets and the way that we fight has generated all the hype it needs.”

When it comes to Stann, Sonnen (25-11-1, 4-4 UFC) has steered clear of any kind of trash talk. In fact, he’d actually prefer to not have to fight the war hero, who is on a three-fight winning streak. And he believes the same goes for the rest of the middleweight division.

“Nobody wants to fight Brian, but somebody’s got to,” Sonnen said. “Our paths have to cross. We’re just in the same weight class, it’s not that big of a pool and he keeps whipping everybody. If he quit beating everybody, I wouldn’t have to fight him. But he decided to go out and become one of the top guys. I’ve done my part and put my time in and I’m up there too, so our paths have to cross.”

With so much time off between fights, Sonnen said he’s happy to be back on the job, but admitted there’s no excitement that comes along with a task the likes of Stann (11-3, 5-2 UFC). It’s possible the winner will get the next crack at Silva – a rematch for Sonnen, and the biggest fight of his career for Stann, the former WEC light heavyweight champion.

With Stann on a three-fight streak, all stoppages with a submission win over Mike Massenzio and convincing TKOs of Chris Leben and Jorge Santiago earlier this year, it’s no wonder Sonnen won’t use the word “excited” about his first fight in more than a year.

“I don’t know that I ever look forward to (fighting),” Sonnen said. “I hear some guys say they’re excited (to fight), and I always get jealous of those guys. I’ve never been excited to have to go fight another man. I’m not excited now. I’m happy to be part of it – I got put in timeout for a while, and I’m glad that’s all over and behind me. But I go with a matter-of-fact approach – I’m not excited for the match. It’s a bunch of emotions that get combined into one, and excitement isn’t one of them.”

A brasher Sonnen, circa Summer 2010, might have approached such a question differently. And it just might be possible that Sonnen’s out-of-the-cage problems have him taking a different approach to how he portrays himself to the public. Possible.

“The happy part is, this is what I want to do and I got held out of it for a while,” Sonnen said. “I’ve always been grateful for these opportunities, but I think I’m a little more grateful now. Appreciative would be a much stronger feeling that I’m having – to make up for the excitement.”

Sonnen has even relaxed his stance on Silva – though make no mistake, a win over Stann and a possible rematch with his old nemesis would likely see him return to the Sonnen of old.

Sonnen said Silva has to be respected – but he still believes he’s better than the champion, who beat Yushin Okami last month, whom Sonnen helped train for the title fight.

“It’s getting harder and harder to deny he should be shown that appreciation,” Sonnen said. “He ducked Okami for years, but he did finally get in there and he made it look easy. So I think you’ve got to look at that. If you’re asking if I’d ever concede that Anderson’s better than me, no. I would refer you to the tape (of our fight). I think he and I are vastly different and that I could come down a lot and still be ahead of him. I also think he ducks and dodges opponents constantly, but his wins and losses speak for themselves. The fact of the matter, whether I like to admit this or not, is he’s done a better job than anybody, done a better job than me, and he is the champion.

“It doesn’t mean I’m going to quit poking my finger in his chest, but at some point I think fairness needs to kick in, too, and you need to look at what he’s done and tip your hat to him a little bit.”

What Sonnen hopes for more than anything is a win over Stann, and a chance to let that finger poking start up once again.

Sonnen and Stann fight on the main card of UFC 136 on Oct. 8 at the Toyota Center in Houston. The main card is headlined by a pair of title fights – the lightweight title rematch between Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard, and a featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Kenny Florian.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

What Your Least Favorite Fighter Says About You


(Indeed. Props: ahura)

Last night I had the misfortune of seeing about 30 seconds of the CW reality show H8R. (That’s pronounced “hater,” grandpa.) In this particular episode, Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis tried to convince some chick that he wasn’t in fact the greatest douchebag of our generation. His primary defense was that the girl didn’t know him personally, and was judging him based only on the “character” she knows from GGW — you know, the character he created. Awful. Just awful. And yet, I’d love to see an episode of that show starring UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

As soon as Jones won his belt, he immediately went from a widely beloved underdog story (“he learned his striking from YouTube videos, you guys!”) to a lightning rod for message-board criticism. Exactly why some fans seem to passionately dislike Bones is a topic that we’ll discuss more in depth on tomorrow’s episode of The Bum Rush. In the meantime, I decided to revive an old CagePotato feature — “What Your Favorite Fighter Says About You” and its sequel — and twist it to reflect today’s hate-crazed MMA climate. So, for example, if your least-favorite fighter is…

JON FITCH


(Indeed. Props: ahura)

Last night I had the misfortune of seeing about 30 seconds of the CW reality show H8R. (That’s pronounced “hater,” grandpa.) In this particular episode, Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis tried to convince some chick that he wasn’t in fact the greatest douchebag of our generation. His primary defense was that the girl didn’t know him personally, and was judging him based only on the “character” she knows from GGW — you know, the character he created. Awful. Just awful. And yet, I’d love to see an episode of that show starring UFC light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones.

As soon as Jones won his belt, he immediately went from a widely beloved underdog story (“he learned his striking from YouTube videos, you guys!”) to a lightning rod for message-board criticism. Exactly why some fans seem to passionately dislike Bones is a topic that we’ll discuss more in depth on tomorrow’s episode of The Bum Rush. In the meantime, I decided to revive an old CagePotato feature — “What Your Favorite Fighter Says About You” and its sequel — and twist it to reflect today’s hate-crazed MMA climate. So, for example, if your least-favorite fighter is…

JON FITCH

Let’s get one thing straight: Wrestling is not a martial art. It’s the opposite of a martial art. Wrestlers are the reason that you started taking Tae Kwon Do in the first place, when you were 12 years old. (Long story short: There were a couple of kids on the wrestling team that used to push you down and drag you around by your legs in front of everybody, and once you got your green belt in TKD they didn’t do it nearly as much.) Basically, you watch MMA for the action — more specifically the knockouts, though submissions can be cool too, sometimes. But watching a couple of dudes grab onto each other and hump on the mat for 15 minutes? That’s not fighting. That’s…you don’t know what it is, but it makes you uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. You clear your browser history every time you finish using your laptop.

CHAEL SONNEN

The only thing you hate worse than a liar is a thief. And the only thing you hate worse than a thief is a real-estate agent. While some UFC fans find Sonnen’s trash-talk hilarious, you see him for what he really is — a slimy, racist sociopath who probably has a few prostitutes buried in his basement. And is it true that his balls are tiny and sitting up in his stomach? Just thinking about it gives you chills. You have normal-sized balls, for the record. If Rick Perry gets elected next year, you’re moving to Canada, seriously, for real this time.

TIM KENNEDY

Let’s just say that there was recently a death in your family.

RASHAD EVANS

For a long time, Chuck Liddell was your favorite fighter. Then, that cocky son-of-a-bitch Rashad Evans stole his soul. You didn’t know what to do with yourself for a while. You tried to make Fedor Emelianenko your favorite fighter, but that didn’t work out either. Rashad ruined everything. It goes without saying that you’re a Caucasian dude, not that the color of your skin has anything to do with your hatred of Rashad Evans. I mean, you’ve been around plenty of black people. One of your old co-workers was black. Kind of an awful experience, but hey, you got through it.

FEDOR EMELIANENKO

You followed Dana White on Twitter before any of your friends did, and you send him ‘@’ messages every day. One time he publicly replied to you with “ha!” when you made a joke about Josh Barnett’s blood being radioactive. That was probably the greatest day of your life. Before that, the greatest day of your life was when you wished Arianny Celeste good luck at a photo shoot and she re-tweeted it. You got, like, 20 new followers that day. Whatever it is you do for a living, you get paid hourly. Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos will be the greatest, most significant heavyweight fight in the history of MMA. Brock Lesnar is going to smash Alistair Overeem, and you plan on being the first person in the world to tweet “IN UR FACE!!! #strikefarce”

JON JONES

You distrust people with long arms. You read the Bible, but think the book of Philippians is way overrated. When you accidentally knocked up your girlfriend, you had the common courtesy to marry her. Everything you accomplished in life came from hard work, not from being young, or naturally gifted, or talented in any measurable way. You like Rampage because he keeps it real. You like Rashad because he has swagger. You don’t know what the hell Greg Jackson is doing down there in Albuquerque, but if the whole camp turns up dead one day from a mass Kool-Aid poisoning, it wouldn’t really surprise you. Your wife used to watch UFC with you only if Georges St. Pierre was on the card. Well, guess who her new “favorite fighter” is now? If Barack Obama gets re-elected next year, you’re moving to Australia, seriously, for real this time.

That’s about all I have energy for right now. If you’d like to see a sequel one day, shoot your suggestions in the comments section…

Ben Goldstein

UFC 136 Preview: 8 Things to Watch for

With UFC 135 in the books, much of the focus in MMA has turned to UFC 136. Taking place October 8th from Houston, Texas, UFC 136 will be headlined by two championship fights. Kenny Florian will challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight title,…

With UFC 135 in the books, much of the focus in MMA has turned to UFC 136

Taking place October 8th from Houston, Texas, UFC 136 will be headlined by two championship fights. 

Kenny Florian will challenge Jose Aldo for the featherweight title, while Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard will have their highly anticipated third bout for the UFC lightweight title. 

Here are some things to look out for on what should be an exciting night of fights.

Begin Slideshow

Ranking the Entire UFC Middleweight Roster

The third installment of ranking the UFC’s current roster by division moves on down to the Middleweight division.This being one of the larger divisions that consists of 43 fighters on the UFC Middleweight roster, that makes this division…

The third installment of ranking the UFC’s current roster by division moves on down to the Middleweight division.

This being one of the larger divisions that consists of 43 fighters on the UFC Middleweight roster, that makes this division a challenging puzzle to piece together, especially when the division has been dominated by one man.

I am not including Royce Gracie for obvious reasons, nor am I including Yoshihiro Akiyama due to his recent decision to cut down to welterweight.

Same rules apply as the previous articles and as always, I want to hear your comments on how you feel this list reflects on your opinion.

To catch the Light-Heavyweight and Heavyweight division, click on the links below.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/837916-ranking-the-entire-ufc-light-heavyweight-division

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/836023-ranking-the-entire-ufc-heavyweight-roster

Begin Slideshow