Wanderlei Silva told Band Television that his brawl with Chael Sonnen was motivated by a request from TUF Brazil’s production. “The Axe Murderer” had never given this version of the story before, as he has always stated that he reacted after being teased by his rival during the show. Wanderlei also complained about the editing process of the altercation episode.
“A producer said to me: ‘Look, we reached the seventh episode and things got cold. You could heat things up somehow’, The edition guys screwed me. Sonnen always appeared as the nice guy, consoling his fighters, while my scenes were all of me with ugly face. It was biased.”
Wanderlei explained how the brawl ended up happening.
“I started to argue with him but, if the production felt that something could happen, they should have separated us. Cut the scene and avoid, but they let things go. It happened for four minutes. It wasn’t a straight fight. We started to discuss and things got heated. Everybody has a savage instinct.”
Dana White had also publicly blamed the production team for letting the altercation happen, and said that the coaches shouldn’t have been so close due the public hatred between them. Coincidence or not, TUF Brazil 3 was the first edition of the show that Globo had full control of the production. It was headed by Boninho, who also is director of Big Brother Brazil, an entertainment show that is very popular in the region and infamously known for presenting controversial content.
I don’t know what Wanderlei means regarding Sonnen and him not having “a straight fight”, but they got into a brawl, which also saw Andre Dida get banned from the show for punching Sonnen from behind. This version may explain why Wanderlei was wearing a mouthpiece and apparently ready to fight, according to Sonnen’s report. Despite wearing pants and flip flops, “The American Gangster” was still able to take Wandy down before the separation.