Chael Sonnen: A Man of Many Words

(Reposted as part of the WKR: Year in Review Series, originally written February 8th, 2010) Despite being a heavy favorite and most people considered him the best middleweight in the UFC outside of Silva and Belfort the UFC was probably ecstatic that Nate Marquardt lost to Chael Sonnen.  Chael Sonnen lacks great power, lacks strong submission skills, but if Anderson Silva beats Vitor Belfort the UFC will have reached euphoria.  If you have been paying attention at all in the past few months you know why.  Chael has made himself relevant due to the fact his mouth never closes and most of the time it is open he is sending verbal attacks toward Anderson Silva.  Chael Sonnen will be the perfect heal in selling a championship fight against Anderson Silva.

I know MMA fans hate pro wrestling comparisons, but with both sports there are two ways to become popular: in the ring (cage) or on the mic and Chael has blossomed to the man on the mic.  We as true fans should not be tricked by the magician on the microphone, but we are time and time again.  When fighters hate each other and spend the pre fight interviews attacking each other it gets us revved up even more.  Serra/Hughes, Trigg/Serra, Serra/Anyone, and we get excited, but in reality it does nothing to change what will happen in the cage.  When the referee throws his hand down to start the fight we are presented with two athletes who ultimate goal is to physically dominate each other.  If they like or hate each other we are going to see the same performance in the fight.  It is the match-up and not the rhetoric that should sell a fight, but we all know that is not always the case.  Do not get me wrong, Chael Sonnen is very good fighter, who has mastered an effective strategy, but I think a title fight against Silva is a bad match-up for him.  Five rounds is long time for a fighter who does not finish fights against a fighter that finishes them.  In three rounds of a beatdown, Chael still almost lost three times during the fight.  Ten more minutes against a much better fighter is probably not a good match-up.  Despite what he said, a fight against Vitor Belfort, who is not a strong finisher from the bottom, is a better match-up.

I digress though.  Below I have provided the reason the UFC cannot wait for a Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva fight.  Remember, these are not all of Chael's quotes in the past few months, but simply the comments about Anderson.  This is all before he is even scheduled to fight Silva.  We will definitely need to be listening if this fight develops.  Enjoy the past and prepare for the future.

Quotes are pulled from MMA Weekly, Cage Writer, USA Today, Yahoo.

SBN coverage of UFC 109: Relentless

Chael thinks he can beat Anderson Silva:

"I'd rather have Anderson who's big and tall and those long legs that I can come out and run over than Vitor."

"I think whoever wins this fight is the best middleweight in the UFC. I think I'm better than Anderson and I think Demian's better than Anderson; I think we would both beat him. For my money, this is the fight to figure out who's the best."-Before his loss to Damian Maia

"Anderson Silva has gone on record and said, 'I can't beat Paulo Filho.' Anderson's manager went on record saying he can't beat Paulo Filho. And Paulo Filho went on record as saying, 'Anderson can't beat me'.... I defeated Paulo Filho"-A deceptive comment right out the political playbook

"That guy's no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods."

"This guy is no more real than the Loch Ness Monster. And if he needs me to expose him then I will."

"That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there's a young man out in Portland, Oregon, that is not signing up on that bandwagon."-Reference to Silva being the best

"If Anderson ever signed to fight me, which is highly unlikely, he'll be getting a verbal beating like you've never seen."

His thoughts on Silva the man:

"You want me to let you in on a secret, Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and all the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn't. I've had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that he's so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking."

"It's quite ironic that all the media comes on and talks about how great this guy is for reasons that are completely un-understandable to me. How great Anderson Silva is, and all of us fighters are in the back going, 'jeez, they're out there massaging his ego, Anderson hates them so much, he pretends he can't understand them,'"

"Look, [Anderson Silva's] not my kind of a guy. This is a grown man that's got earrings. This is a grown man who wears his hat sideways. This is a guy who wears pink T-shirts. This guy wouldn't make it 12 minutes in my neighborhood."

"I live in a nice neighborhood and we'd still run him out."

If you would like more Sonnen quotes on others check out this quote recap