Tag: UFC 117

Anyone who’s been following Chael Sonnen’s pre-fight, smack talking fest as he heads into his August 7^th bout with Anderson Silva, shouldn’t be surprised to find out that the champion seems to be getting a little tired of Sonnen’s verbal assault. We’ve gone on plenty a time about Sonnen’s gift for controversial gab, and as the fight draws nearer, his trash talking seems to be getting more attention (belittling one of, if not the world’s best fighter tends to get noticed…)

What’s the latest newsworthy ‘Sonnen’ from Sonnen? Well in a clip from the upcoming UFC 117 preview, the punishing wrestler once again let the insults fly in Silva’s direction, stating, amongst other things:

“He fought a one-legged Canadian, he fought a math teacher from Ohio and he fought a bunch of guys who weren’t even good enough to hold their spot in the company…His running is done, his 15 minutes of fame are up and I’m gonna bring it to an abrupt halt.”

Pssst; Patrick Cote and Rich Franklin, we think he’s talking about you….And far as Silva’s opinion on having his resume criticized, one that most observers seem to think has entrenched Silva in the world’s best P4P position? Speaking to Tatame.com recently the middleweight champ said this:

“What he’s saying is disrespecting me; he’s disrespecting me and all opponents I’ve faced. Dan Henderson, in my opinion, is the best Wrestler that there is out there on MMA”.

August 7^th here we come. To bet on the fight head here.

With UFC 116 in the books many in the MMA world will turn much of their attention to the upcoming August 7^th, UFC 117 tilt, between reigning middleweight king Anderson Silva and challenger Chael Sonnen. On paper, the fight already screams ‘can’t miss,’ as everyone will be looking to see if Sonnen’s wrestling will rule the day over Silva’s highlight reel striking and ground game. Of course if that wasn’t enough to hype the bout, throw in Silva’s recent ‘WTF is he doing?’ performance against Demian Maia and a steady flow of pre-fight trash talking from Sonnen, and you’ve got some real drama cooking.

Really, thanks to the onslaught of ‘Sonnens’ that Chael has directed at Anderson (in case you haven’t noticed the middleweight has a knack for saying things that either induce laughter or rage), Silva’s debacle at UFC 112 has kind of taken a back seat. From belittling Silva’s friends and jiu-jitsu instructors in the Nogueira twins, to outright saying the champ has been ducking him, Sonnen hasn’t been ‘reserved’ while offering his pre-fight analysis. As far as Silva’s take on Sonnen’s comments? He recently told Tatame this:

“I’m cool… I’m not anxious about his statements, I don’t worry about those things. He is promoting this fight the way he cans. He’s a great athlete, he’s having a chance to fight for the belt, so let’s go. When you get there, everything changes. Inside that cage the speech changes, everything change. The last one who spoke too much didn’t like the outcome, but it’s normal. People have their mouth and their right to say whatever they feel like.”

This is going to be good…real good. To bet on UFC 117 head here.