UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen has been talking up a storm, most of it of the manure persuasion, as the days count down to his title fight with champ Anderson Silva.
At Friday’s UFC Q&A session in Vancouver, Canada (video highlights) Sonnen talked about his upcoming fight with Silva and talked about the Brazilians black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which was awarded to him under the Nogueira’s. He compared having one under their tutelage akin to getting the toy from a Happy Meal.
“When you get him down you’re not out of the woods yet. But he has a black belt from the Nogueira brothers, which is like getting a toy in your happy meal if you ask me. One of them is a punching bag and the other is really just irrelevant.”
“When the music hits and I make the walk to the ring it’s pure focus at that point because I come from a real sport — wrestling. You take me to the Olympic Village and show me the centre of Muay Thai.
“What is Muay Thai anyway? We know what Thai is, it’s short for Thailand. But what is this “Muay” word? So what, he’s good at Muay Thai? It’s like the Crackerjack award he’s got from the Nogueira brothers.
“I am outing the guy. He’s a fraud. He likes to get in the ring and bow — if you bow to him he’ll hit you over your head and take your wallet. I’m the same way, though. I’ll smile at him, and when he turns his back I’ll stick a knife in it. “
(transcribed by ESPN.co.uk)
Sonnen’s trash talk has been relentless since even before their announced matchup, and some of that talk, some of which has emanated on Twitter.com/sonnench, may cause issues as he runs for office representing the Republican party in the Oregon State Legislature.
A Huffington Post reporter challenged Sonnen and his controversial Tweets.
On twitter.com/sonnench there are memorable tweets such as: “I’m a gangster from Oregon”… “Anderson, you are going to be on your back more than a pornstar with a mortgage”… and what I find most offensive “Ed, pray to whatever Demon effigy you prance and dance in front of with your piglet tribe of savages that I decide not to CRUCIFY you.”
I see this last tweet as racist and xenophobic and was wondering how a candidate of a major party for the State Legislature was getting away with this. So I reached out to some Oregon press asking them why they haven’t challenged this candidate on this type of talk. A reporter I emailed said he would take up the story. A couple of days ago he emailed me and said that Sonnen denied that he ever made the statements and that the twitter account is a fake one.
It will be interesting to see if Sonnen’s ambition for UFC gold will hurt him on the political side, or if pressure from his political career will see him turn down the level of trash talk.