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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
As we near UFC 117 next month, where Anderson Silva will defend his UFC Middleweight Title for the seventh time when he takes on #1 contender Chael Sonnen in Oakland, Calif, his challenger will continue to open his mouth at any chance he gets.
After being very outspoken against Silva's UFC 112 performance, and it's led to a war of words between Sonnen and Silva's manager, Ed Soares. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira also got in a few jabs this week, as he told Sherdog.com, "I think he's just talking nonsense. He is not even a real challenger to Anderson. I think other fighters have done much more in the division, such as Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt, whom he won against, Demian Maia, who played with him like a child, and Vitor Belfort. He is enjoying his 15 minutes of fame. He will take a beating from Anderson, who will beat him like a child, will beat his ass and will shut his mouth."
Well, never one to keep his thoughts to himself, Sonnen has spouted off even more in an "open letter" this week that has circulated around the web. Here's what Sonnen had to say this week:
"Hi, everybody! Remember me? Your ol’ buddy Chael? Y’know I spend most of my time fightin’, which doesn’t leave much time for writin’, but things being what they are, I’ve decided to take a moment or two, and fire up the ol’ Olivetti typewriter, put in a fresh ribbon, and share some of my recent thoughts with you….
Firstly, I’ve gotten a significant amount of feedback regarding my “correspondence” with MMA…..”Journalist” Jon Lane…So….To any and all members of the media: I’m always happy to talk and share my time and ideas with you. And I appreciate your efforts in contacting me, and instead of ‘circling the wagons’ around a “fellow journalist”, for applauding my efforts to….FIX things. Do me a favor, guys. Don’t be so hard on JonJon. He’ll get it. Bring him along, help him out here & there. I kinda like him. And Jon…..No hard feelings. Really. If you re-read our correspondence in the cold, hard, light of day, you’ll see I was trying to….HELP you.
I never expected you to be Umberto Eco; but those questions… guy! I mean COME ON. So buck up, little soldier. If you fall off, just get right back on – even if it’s only a keyboard you’re getting on.
And Lil’ Nog…..I read your appraisal of the upcoming fight betwixt your pal Anderson and yours truly and, I’ll be damned, you are one sharp dude…. about as sharp as a bag of wet mice.
Do yourself a favor: have your mouthpiece permanently installed in your mouth so you can’t speak at all. Have them feed you with a tube like a coma patient. You’re not doing Anderson any good and you’re sinking your own ship too. You say I’m not qualified to fight Anderson…Which means that the UFC brain trust – that thinks I AM and are also YOUR BOSSES — are idiots. It also means Ed Soares – Anderson’s manager and YOUR MANAGER TOO – doesn’t know what he’s doing, either. Smooth, guy. Very smooth. Do you have any other brilliant ideas or scathing critiques you care to impart to the UFC Brass or your own manager? Maybe that shot Sokodjou hit you with was worse than it looked (if that’s even possible).
You seem like a nice enough guy, and I have no real beef with you (Oh, and speaking of beef: If you can turn your disk over at the Rodizio once in awhile and get down to “185,” there’s gonna be a new sheriff there in less than a month who’ll be happy to ride you right back out of town on a rail). So please see this as the kind of well-intentioned advice I would give to a friend or training partner. And if you lose a few (you looked like Roy Nelson in a Frankenstein mask for that Brilz fight… which you lost, buddyboy), we can scrap in the Fall.
And Ed, I saw your recent comments. Not bad work. Hats off. You come across as professional and accountable in every respect…which makes your inability to control, explain or denounce Anderson’s behavior quite puzzling to me. THAT’S one of the main reasons we are where we are with all this: because you can’t make him fight.
You can’t explain why he does what he does and you refuse to give a consistent, rational explanation for it. It’s like you keep trying to sell the kids faulty fireworks that turn around after 10 feet and come screaming back and hit them in the eye or blow their hands off.
Are you aware that you represent the generally acknowledged best fighter in the world in the premier promotion on planet Earth and that the president of that company has promised to FIRE HIM for his behavior?
Aren’t you just a little embarrassed by that?
And that’s got NOTHING to do with me, or even this fight.
Imagine: Your team is on the two-yard line in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, but your star quarterback disregards the head coach’s instructions and calls a play where he throws the ball to a popcorn vendor in the sixth row, then eats a piece of turf and craps in his helmet on the 50-yard line.
Do you know who he’s REALLY mad at? NOT the fans or the opposing team…he’s mad at daddy; he’s mad at the coach!
WHY?
What causes that encoded hostility?
Is your fighter insane? If he is – and you therefore cannot reasonably predict his behavior – isn’t it incumbent upon YOU to find a way to fix it?
Don’t you owe that to the sport?
To the fans?
To his boss, Dana White?
And lastly… don’t you owe a debt to HIM and his long-term psychological well-being? Shouldn’t you get him the help he needs, before one of his irrational, unexplainable acts causes himself or someone else genuine harm? If he’s irrational and uncontrollable, put him in a psych ward. If he’s fine, prove it by giving a legitimate, rational, explanation for his actions in Abu Dhabi.
I’m the one who has to fight him.
What’s going on, exactly?
…OK kids…….Chael has to go get all sweaty again."
Penick's Analysis: I like how it's Chael calling for Anderson's entrance to the psych ward. This act of his may grow very tiring over the next month, but for now it remains slightly entertaining to see and hear him take this jabs at every turn. He's splitting fans into two camps with this strategy of his: those that are into his comments and agree with him about Anderson Silva, and those that are getting sick of him and hope he brings out the fight in Silva, leading to his decimation at UFC 117.
Whatever side you're on, the important thing is Sonnen is making people care about this fight. That's the amazing thing here. If you would have said last year that this is a fight that would be put together in 2010, you would have gotten nothing but groans and disinterest.
But with Sonnen blasting through two extremely tough fighters in the middleweight division in Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt, along with fans' desire to see Silva perform much better than he has in so many recent fights, this is becoming one that people actually want to tune in for. It doesn't hurt that the UFC has put together a must see fight card for the pay-per-view as well.
RELATED STORY: UFC NEWS: Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves II finally official for UFC 117: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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