By David King, Yahoo! Contributor Network
UFC middleweight number one contender, Chael Sonnen, is never short of words. And he took a few more shots at his arch nemesis, Anderson Silva, in a recent interview. Even though he'll be facing Silva in a few months (in front of 80,000 Brazilian MMA fans, who are not exactly fond of the Portland native), Sonnen remains confident. And he promises to give Silva the beating of his life at UFC 147.
"You don't matter Anderson," Sonnen said. "Don't talk down to me; don't talk to me like you're my equal because you're not. I stomped you before, and I will stomp you again. You are a nuisance to me and to everybody else. You ducked me for six years. You ducked me for two years after that, there's nothing I can do more than pick a fight. You put every stipulation on his thing that you could think of and I answered them all, including coming to Brazil, like it's some kind of big deal. … I'm gonna stomp you this time, the same like I did last time."
Coming into his UFC 117 fight against Silva, Sonnen was very verbal about his intentions inside the Octagon. And he certainly surprised many MMA fans with his dominant performance against the sport's pound-for-pound king. Sonnen dominated Silva—for four and a half rounds—with his aggressive wrestling, but his poor BJJ defense eventually got the best of him, succumbing to an armbar-triangle combo minutes before the final bell.
Unfortunately for Sonnen, a failed post-fight drug test—and Silva's claim of a rib injury—put an asterisk on his performance at UFC 117. And he'll be the underdog going into his rematch with Silva.
I won't completely count Sonnen out against Silva, but his chances are pretty low, considering the amount of time Silva has had to prepare for him (Silva won't underestimate Sonnen this time around either).
Even though their UFC 147 bout will probably be the biggest event in MMA history, I'm not expecting a competitive fight. Silva put on the worst performance of his MMA career at UFC 117, yet, it was still enough to get past a testosterone fueled Sonnen. In front of 80,000 enthusiastic Brazilian fans, I expect to see the best Anderson Silva we've ever seen.
David is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing practitioner that has watched and studied MMA for the past 7 years. Follow him on twitter @davidkingwriter and check out his blog.
Sources:
Fight and fighter information from Sherdog.com
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