UFC
Vitor Belfort on "embarrassing" Silva-Sonnen TUF brawl: "There's no room for this kind of behavior in a sport like MMA"
Apr 15, 2014 - 11:45:45 AM Vitor Belfort on "embarrassing" Silva-Sonnen TUF brawl: "There's no room for this kind of behavior in a sport like MMA"

DISCUSS ALL THIS IN OUR NEW MMATORCH FORUM

...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

The on-set brawl between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen - with Silva assistant coach Andre Dida getting in a few punches himself - on "The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 3" made everyone look bad, but in particular it was Silva and Dida who came off the worst.

Most have come down on that side of things in their reactions, including fellow Brazilian Vitor Belfort, who took to his Facebook page to express his distaste with the incident.

"The brawl between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen at TUF Brazil embarrassed me," Belfort wrote on his Facebook page (translated by MMAFighting.com). "First because MMA is not violence, is a fight between two guys that are prepared for it and inside an Octagon. That's what I do. I don't brawl, I fight. Second, there's no room for this kind of behavior in a sport like MMA in a time that the sport has its rules inside and outside the Octagon."

"Third and most importantly, MMA can't influence this behavior that ends in assault as if it were the appropriate model of behavior. Millions of young kids suffer with violence inside and outside their schools, and the television can't be driving this behavior, so the athletes need to represent control no matter what."

"MMA fighters must urgently be aware that the behavior inside and outside the Octagon can influence millions of people in a good or a bad way. I chose to influence for good because MMA also chose this path. Anything outside of that is no longer MMA, so it definitely not me."

PENICK'S ANALYSIS: That's definitely one of the biggest problems with the brawl, as it was a petty unnecessary fight when they're supposed to actually fight in the Octagon at the end of this. Now, who knows if they'll wind up fighting or not at this point, but Silva and Dida came off terribly in that fight.

[SOURCE LINK]

(Note to iPhone Safari users: To return to main menu listing, do a quick downswipe to make the back button visible on the bottom of your screen or just click on the MMATorch logo above to return to the main listing page.)