In separate interviews with MMA Weekly, UFC middleweight Chael Sonnen and Ed Soares, who manages several UFC fighters including middleweight champ Anderson Silva, have tossed some harsh words back and forth regarding Silva.
Sonnen:
“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,’” Sonnen stated.
“That guy’s no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods,” said Sonnen. “That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there’s a young man out in Portland, Ore., that is not signing up on that bandwagon.
“If Anderson ever signed to fight me, which is highly unlikely, he’ll be getting a verbal beating like you’ve never seen. And his language barrier won’t be the point of interest.”
Soares’s response is after the jump…
Soares:
“I think Chael’s a really super nice guy and every time I’ve met the guy he’s always been really cool to me. That’s weird that he would say stuff on the radio, but I think at the end of the day, Chael’s not a dumb guy, he’s a pretty smart guy,” Soares commented. “I think no one will really pay attention to what he has to say unless he probably talks about Anderson.”
“Anyone that has a mouth can say what they want,” he said. “I don’t think people pay too much attention to what Chael does. Saying that Anderson’s boring or Anderson’s this, Anderson’s that, we don’t even need to go back and see what Chael has done. If you really want to analyze Chael’s career over the past couple years, he’s had some wins, but he said he didn’t tap against Paulo Filho. If the ref wouldn’t have stopped the fight, Paulo Filho would have his arm in Brazil with him.
“And when he beat Paulo Filho, he was 35 to 40 percent of a Paulo Filho and he took him to a decision. Then he went and fought Damien Maia, got submitted quick, and now he’s going to fight Nate Marquardt which Nate just ended up knocking out Damien Maia. I think Chael should be really focused on his fight that he’s got against Nate Marquardt because I can tell you right now that’s probably going to be the hardest fight of his life. I would put my money on Nate.”
Never one to mince words, Sonnen may simply be trying to build some heat, and perhaps he’s thinking that if he can start up a little rivalry with the Spider, he might pave his way to a title shot if he can defeat the very dangerous Nate Marquardt at UFC 109. Of course that’s a very big “if”, and like Soares, many are betting on Nate to win that fight. Nonetheless, nothing’s ever stopped Sonnen from drawing attention to himself and he sure knows how to sell a fight, even if that means drawing the ire of the fans.