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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
While Anderson Silva has remained relatively quiet in the build up to his UFC 117 bout with Chael Sonnen, he did take some time out to appear on ESPN's Sportscenter Thursday morning to give his take on the fight. What followed was an interesting interview in which Silva answered some questions in English and some in Portuguese through his manager and translator Ed Soares.
"Chael talk, talk, talk, but [in] my opinion this isn't promoting the fight," Silva said. "It's disrespect to the fight; not me, the fight. I don't have [any] talk for Chael."
"This is the opinion of Chael [that I'm not doing enough to sell the fight]. I go for the fight on Saturday, the people go to watch the fight. I've [been] fighting here for a long long time for the UFC... Chael talk, talk, talk, maybe sometimes Chael is confused. This is my time."
Silva addressed some of the criticism to his performance against Demian Maia at UFC 112 in April as well, and his prediction and mindset for Saturday's fight should put more fans at ease about what they're likely to see in the fight.
"I was a little upset after I watched the fight on a few things I did," Silva said about that UFC 112 matchup. "After I watched the fight over and over again, I definitely took some things that I can get better at and it was a good experience and I'll take that on to my next fight."
"Saturday my goal for the fight is to finish the fight in the first round."
But that may not mean he's approaching the fight any differently than any in his past, though hopefully the end result doesn't match what we've seen in his last few Middleweight Title defenses.
"I think my strategy is going to be like it's always been," Silva finished. "It's to go in there and try to make Chael commit a mistake and as soon as he makes a mistake I'm going to capitalize on the mistake."
UFC 117 airs live on pay-per-view this Saturday from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif.
Penick's Analysis: For starters, it continues to be great to see the UFC and its fighters getting exposure like this on ESPN. From MMA Live to these Sportscenter appearances, ESPN continues to take the sport more and more seriously, and that in turn brings the acceptance of the sport in the mainstream closer and closer to a reality. As for Silva's appearance here, it's strange to hear him every time he talks, because he's very soft spoken and it's just very interesting to hear this higher pitched voice out of perhaps the best fighter on the planet. But he answered the questions asked of him, as he'll do at this afternoon's press conference, and then there's only the fight left on Saturday. Hopefully, he fights like he's trying to finish it in the first round and not like he's simply better than Sonnen.
RELATED STORY: PENICK: Chael Sonnen gets caught in a lie, rides ridiculous denials into UFC 117: [CLICK TO READ FULL ARTICLE]
[Anderson Silva art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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