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Chael Sonnen: I’m the only one in four years calling out Anderson Silva and “every 85-pounder and every 205-pounder and everybody else in the UFC’s a bunch of cowards”
By Zach Arnold | May 30, 2010
Larry Pepe of Pro MMA Radio has brought the goods from this past weekend at the UFC Fan Expo. A tip of the cap to him.
You can read the transcription of quotes from this interview in full-page mode.
LARRY PEPE: “Chael (Sonnen), I understand we might have gotten almost a preview last night. What happened? Because Twitter is a-buzz with a little negative interaction between you and the champ.”
CHAEL SONNEN: “You know I was really trying to be helpful. Anderson (Silva) was signing a group of autographs, he looked like he didn’t want to be signing them, and I let him know that in two months he won’t have to sign any more because nobody will care about him again.”
LARRY PEPE: “And then it escalated, though, because at some point I guess somebody translated it and you guys had a little interaction in the lobby I heard.”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Is that what happened? Did somebody translate? I didn’t know. I was going down the hallway with my manager Jeff and he came up, I heard somebody saying my name, I thought gosh is that Anderson? I looked back… well, it was Anderson sure enough. I don’t know how much of an interaction it was. I thought there was going to be but… it was really quite uneventful, frankly.”
LARRY PEPE: “Well, when he came up, did he say anything to you? Did he seem upset? Give me a little more detail.”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Well, yeah, a little bit, it was hard to say because there was so many people and there was cameras and there was a lot of noise. I’m sorry for not giving more detail but it kind of caught me off-guard too and you know when he called my name, I stopped and looked and I didn’t know where it was going. He was telling me to relax, he kept saying “Chael relax! Chael relax!” That was truly, I mean, that was about the extent of it. There was people everywhere. I can’t fully remember because I was a little bit on edge myself when he tracked me down. I didn’t know where that was going to go. But, you know, all’s well that ended well.”
LARRY PEPE: “So, this has been kind of been an ongoing theme for you. You’ve been needling him for a lot. You did it before the fight was announced. Talk about how important it is from the business side. Yes, you won three huge fights to earn this title shot and earn the title shot is the way to put it, but you also understand the business side. You’ve been kind of marketing this fight for a while.”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Yeah, I mean that’s true. You know, you’re never going to get a fight that nobody wants to see so you know the first thing you have to do is have people that want to see the fight and in addition, this one’s an easy one because we really do want to fight. I had a fight with a guy named Dan Miller who’s a friend of mine going geez, we’ll go out there and compete as hard as we can but I don’t want to fight Dan Miller, I will fight Dan Miller, I don’t want to fight. There’s a big difference. I want to fight Anderson Silva. I’ve wanted to fight him for four years. I’ve been sticking my finger in his chest. I told him for four years to stay away from me. For four years he has and for whatever reason he decided in the hallway yesterday was a good idea to break that streak. There was a lot of people and it ended well, but on August 7th there won’t be a lot of people and it’s not going to end well.”
LARRY PEPE: “Why have you wanted this fight for so long? I understand he’s the champion. Is it just about the title or is there something about him?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “You know, it’s a large part about the title. It is a large part about him. He’s not my kind of guy. We’re not going to be friends you know in real life. We’re just not. But on top of that, it’s truly also a point to prove to everybody else in the division…. one guy has challenged Anderson Silva in four years. One guy. Me! You can’t find a challenge anywhere by any other athlete in this company except me because every 85-pounder and every 205-pounder and everybody else in the UFC’s a bunch of cowards except me. One guy wants to fight the champion, one guy is willing to be the best. That’s why I have this fight because nobody else will do it.”
LARRY PEPE: “And Chael, I remember you telling me that when your Dad was passing the last thing that you guys spoke about was that you promised you would bring home a world championship. Is that a big driving factor in all of this as well?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Oh yeah, that’s the only promise I ever made that I haven’t kept. I told him I was going to beat Tito Ortiz and win the championship. Tito was the champion at the time. But… Tito wasn’t the point, the championship was the point so I’m sure Anderson will suit him just fine.”
LARRY PEPE: “So before I let you go, congratulations on the primary.”
CHAEL SONNEN: “Thank you very much.”
LARRY PEPE: “And now, when does the actual election come up for you and how could that impact your training for Anderson?”
CHAEL SONNEN: “You know, I don’t know. This is [uncharted] waters for me. The actual election is in November. We do it in Oregon the same day that the whole nation will be voting on their Senate and Congressman from every other state. And as far as training, I don’t know. Like I said, this is new to me but whether I train for Anderson or I don’t train for Anderson, on August 7th I’m going to walk out there and beat up Anderson.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
Not to hijack this thread, Zach.
But is this good for the sport?
Headline: Cagefighter rips out the still-beating heart of training partner
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1282647/American-cage-fighter-rips-beating-heart-training-partner-fearing-possessed-devil.html