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ARNOLD: On Chael Sonnen - Only in fighting can you lie about your opponent and become a big babyface overnight
Aug 9, 2010 - 11:43:05 AM
ARNOLD: On Chael Sonnen - Only in fighting can you lie about your opponent and become a big babyface overnight
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By: Zach Arnold, Special Guest Columnist

UFC_117_poster_180_15.jpg
Chael Sonnen has talked a lot of trash about Anderson Silva, and a lot of whoppers have been said. Remember when he told the press that Anderson Silva really speaks English and that he doesn't speak it around the media because he really hates the media? The media did not take too kindly to this remark by Sonnen.

"You know I'm not a fan of his, no, I mean, a guy with earrings, crooked hats, and pink shirts wouldn't make it 10 minutes in my neighborhood and I live in a nice neighborhood and we'd still run him out of him town. You know, I'm not against him either, I acknowledge that he's got a good skill set. That's about all I want to say. He will get a verbal beating and he'll deserve every bit of it."

Sonnen was incredulous as to why the media loved Anderson Silva and thought that Silva respected them.

"I discussed him, it's called the truth and it's very new in MMA, I don't think guys are used to it. You know, it's similar to guys that train six hours a day, seven days a week, that doesn't happen. You know, some of the guys who go to camp, they're not at camp. They're off somewhere playing Nintendo all day, pretending to contribute to society. It's called the truth and I let a few people in on some true facts and none of it was rhetoric, none of it would I apologize for and none of it was to hype a fight, it was just the truth. I keep hearing that 'Hey Chael, you're really upping the talk,' I haven't talked! Look, I said one thing, Anderson Silva speaks English, he doesn't want to speak to any of you. You guys go out and massage his ego in the press on a daily basis. The irony there is he has such disdain for you he pretends he can't understand you. So, I find that interesting. You guys apparently didn't. You thought that was trash talk. That's again called the truth. I can't change the fact that he doesn't want to talk to you guys. So there you go, thus making Ed Soares more relevant so maybe that's part of the master plan. I don't know, I'm just telling you, he speaks English. I spoke to him."

A media writer quipped that "we're probably just used to people not wanting to talk to us."

"Well it's a brilliant plan," Sonnen countered. "I mean I can tell you, it's worked for him. He can avoid talking to you guys, he can avoid these things, and he can get pushed to the top. I've never seen it. Good for him, good for him for doing it. But everyone hears him back stage, this isn't... this isn't Chael Sonnen talking, everybody in the UFC knows he speaks English. We all speak to him, you know, backstage he talks, you guys pop in with a camera and all of a sudden it's Se Habla Español, you know, it's a big joke."

That's Portuguese, but keep Spanish on your mind for a bit here. During the week leading up to the UFC 117 fight, in an interview with Pro MMA Radio, Sonnen trashed Rampage Jackson for not taking responsibility in his life and then blurted out that Lance Armstrong gave himself cancer.

"The deal with Rampage is real simple. Look, Rampage screwed up. He committed a horrible crime and it was terrible what he did and he needed to say that. Instead, he took a role as though he was a victim, didn't get enough sleep and drink too much Red Bull. That is just absurd, you know, that's just absurd. You just simply can't spit on me and tell me it's raining and Rampage in a leadership role that he's in and with the notoriety and attention that he gets himself, to make like he was the victim was a big turnoff. With that said, I get it. I like Rampage's interviews. I like his presence. I like his entrance to the cage and his accomplishments are undeniable. He's a former World champion, he's the only guy to come over from PRIDE and have success in the UFC. You know, that may not be fair if I was to say the only guy, maybe I'd have to rack my brain to find someone else, but he has done a great job and he's an entertaining guy, so there you go. As far as me being a fan of his actions and the way he behaves and the way he acts, no."

And then the bomb.

"Everybody's got the right to get bugged but you'll deal with some people that just have never have been wrong, they're never wrong their whole life. You got to step back and say listen, OK, do you really think that's a fair statement? Is that really, as an objective person, you've never been wrong? You've never made a mistake? I've never really understood that. So that one's always a little bit confusing, I don't know if that actually pertains here, I wouldn't say that it's the #1 thing that gets under my skin, but you know… when you get an opportunity, it's important to be thankful and when you screw up and you… Take Lance Armstrong. Lance Armstrong did a number of things, uh… and he gave himself cancer. OK? Lance Armstrong cheated. He did drugs. He gave himself cancer. Well, instead of saying 'hey, listen, I cheated, nobody else should cheat or you can get cancer,' he actually made himself the victim and then went out and profited like $15.something million dollars from his 'hey poor me' campaign, 'let's find a cure of cancer,' instead of just really coming clean and saying, 'look, here's what I did, I screwed myself up and I hope nobody else doesn't learn from my mistakes,' so you know you watch these guys and you go, God what a fraud, there's just fraud after fraud here from Michael Phelps being the pothead to you know you just got to deal with these things and if you're me, you're glad you're in the business you're in where you can get 'em in the cage and kick the crap out of them for 25 minutes."

When radio host Jim Rome confronted Sonnen about this quote on Armstrong, he claimed he never said anything about Armstrong and that the recording being played back to him was someone with a Hispanic accent. Heartwarming stuff there.

That wasn't the end of it. Sonnen then went on HDNet and accused Anderson Silva of greasing before fights.

"He wears these little tiny shorts, you know, his skin's very slippery, he's one of these guys that greases up. So you got to get a hold of the fabric. There isn't much there. yeah, he's a hard guy to drag down. A lot of guys have had problems with it, but um… you know, he's not the first cheater that I've dealt with, he's not the first guy that discovered he could soak himself in baby oil before he walked to the ring so you know, again, I got a lot of obstacles to deal with. That's just one more."

After Ron Kruck questioned him on the accusation, Sonnen denied he had just said anything of substance.

"Those weren't exactly my words, so let's just move on."

And yet, the one truth Sonnen told the world was the one thing coming from his mouth that no one believed. He told the world on the UFC 117 PPV barker ad that Anderson Silva hasn't had to deal with pressure from an opponent before, that Anderson is a fantastic champion, but "I am the BEST." He added when pressure was applied to Silva, whether or not he can handle it would be something "we are all going to find out."

Boy, did we ever.

Sonnen did exactly what he said he would do. He so utterly destroyed Anderson Silva for four rounds that the judges' score cards were: Nelson Hamilton 40-34, 40-35, and Jon Schorle 40-36 heading in the last round. I guess Jon Schorle, a referee, doesn't believe in scoring 10-8 rounds. For 23 of the 25 minutes, Sonnen beat Anderson Silva up. He was beating the school yard bully up. He had landed more strikes, according to CompuStrike, in the fight than Anderson Silva's last 11 opponents in the UFC -- combined. Without a submission or KO, Silva was losing his title. Ironically, all Sonnen had to do was dance around for the last round and mock Anderson and he would have won. He would have given Anderson a poetic taste of his own medicine.

Instead, the old Chael showed up. The one who always gets submitted, taps out, and then tells the public that he really didn't tap out. Chael Sonnen told one lie too many. The one lie he couldn't factually back up was his line about getting a black belt from the Nogueira Brothers.

"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."

It was that black belt-level jiu-jitsu that saved Anderson Silva's ass and kept the title in his camp.

For those fans who rooted for Anderson to shut the big loudmouth, there was much celebration. However, they appeared to be in the minority. The fan reaction for both fighters heading into the match was that the fans didn't care for both men.

Once Sonnen showed early on the fight that he could actually win this thing, suddenly public opinion turned rapidly in his favor and people were rooting for him to win. When he lost, I saw an amazing outpouring of sympathy for this man. Hell, even Dana White gave Sonnen a "win" bonus after the fight.

Even more amazingly, I've had several people inexplicably tell me directly that they thought the fight was a work because there was no way that Anderson Silva was going to allow himself to get beat up for 20+ minutes and then just submit the guy destroying him.

In a year where the machines of MMA myth such as Fedor have been turned into mere mortals, Anderson Silva looked like anything but a legend -- until his submission out of nowhere. Naturally, Dana White would call the fight "legendary" after it was all said and done with.

For all the trash that Sonnen talked heading into the fight, he has magically come out of this UFC 117 fight looking like a genius. He's now got street cred. Fans are clamoring for an automatic rematch. Silva reportedly has injured ribs and won't be fighting until 2011. UFC now has options.

- They can book a rematch in 2011 between the two men. And if the first fight is as good as the second one, we could have a new version of the Randy Couture/Chuck Liddell trilogy.

- They can give Vitor Belfort a title shot against Anderson Silva. We saw Chael Sonnen strike with Anderson Silva on his feet by not allowing space in between each other. Given Belfort's fast striking abilities, he has a real chance of knocking out Silva. Suddenly the champion looks vulnerable.

- They can book a #1 contender's match between Sonnen and Belfort. If Sonnen wins, he can point to the win as his way of earning a title match. If Belfort wins, he gains more credibility. (His last win was over Rich Franklin and that's looking pretty good now, too.)

No matter who Sonnen fights next, he will enter that fight as a humongous babyface and one that is taken very seriously... despite everything that he's said about, well, everyone and everything else from cancer to greasing. Welcome to the fight game.

RELATED STORY: PENICK: Possible options to set up Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen II without an immediate rematch: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]


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