Silva: Chael Sonnen owes his UFC career to Brazil
On Wanderlei’s face to face demand that Chael “show respect or lose teeth.” “Brazil has never disrespected anyone … All…
On Wanderlei’s face to face demand that Chael “show respect or lose teeth.”
“Brazil has never disrespected anyone … All the Brazilian fighters are recognized world wide for their techniques, for our fantastic performances that we display outside and inside our country, I think we have a big history inside MMA.
“If Chael Sonnen is able to fight today in a promotion such as the UFC, simply put, he owes that to Brazil, and simply put, to a Brazilian that created the UFC.
“So unfortunately he made some misfortunate comments, he was submitted the way he was because of what he said about Rodrigo, and my personal opinion is this; he spent four rounds in the best position, the position that he said he was going to be in and in fact he was, and didn’t win the fight.”So a rematch? There was going to be a rematch, but I don’t think he would be deserving of such thing. If he couldn’t win in four five minute rounds, would he win in a rematch? Maybe, maybe not, so anyhow, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt once again.”
“When he talked bad about the Nogueira brothers everything changed. Up until then I was taking everything with a bit of salt, ah it’s cool, let the guy say whatever he wants, but when he started talking bad about the Nogueira brothers he started to go over the top, talking bad about Brazil.
“When it’s me it’s cool, everyone talks bad about me, what you gonna do… talking bad about me is normal, there are people who like me and there are people who don’t .. But I told Minotauro, I said; Minotauro, I will put him down, I will pull guard and I will submit him, because he could have talked about anyone he wanted, except you, the only people he should not have mentioned is you and your brother.
“So I came in with a gi in tribute to Rodrigo and Rogério, and Ramon and the whole Jiu Jitsu community. It was a matter of honor for being a black belt under the Nogueiras, and a matter of honor due to everything Chael said prior to the fight.
So obviously, I hope the situation never repeats itself, I will never fight injured again, I hope that does not happen, but God enlightened me in the right moment. I think the best thing that came out of all of these was the big opportunity God gave me to show people that we should never give up, no matter what.”
“The big message God used me to give people was this; that we should never give up! And this was also useful to show people that Anderson is normal, Anderson is not the best in the world, Anderson can lose, Anderson can win, Anderson feels pain, Anderson is not unbeatable. This was nice, it was great.”
On date of his next fight:
“I talked to my doctor this week … (he) told me to wait another two weeks to see how I’m feeling, and after that we’ll see if I can go back training. So there is nothing set.
“People have come out confirming the date, Dana White has come out confirming it, but I haven’t confirmed it yet. So there is nothing set,
“I might not even fight this coming year, I might fight in the end of this coming year, so there is nothing set.”
“They say it may be February, January, but I haven’t gone back to training full time, I’m still doing light training, who is really going to decide when I’ll be able to go back to training full time is my doctor.”