Sonnen sounds off in open letter to fans
With the biggest fight of his life less than four weeks away and a legion of fans and fighters awaiting…
With the biggest fight of his life less than four weeks away and a legion of fans and fighters awaiting his supposed demise, Chael Sonnen has found a measure of solace alone in the spotlight.
On August 7, Sonnen will face Anderson Silva for the middleweight title at UFC 117. Until then, he is insistent on remaining one of the most polarizing figures in MMA. He entertained the crowd with stand-up comedy before UFC 115, but also angered Silva fans with his comic-book bravado. His negativity towards Silva, considered by many to be the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, has also drawn him into a war of words with Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, and teammate Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. In June, Sonnen quietly pulled out of the Oregon congressional race while loudly engaging in an interview fiasco – for lack of a better term – with a MMA journalist.
Heavily repudiated but never duplicated, Sonnen turned up the heat in an open letter to his fans on Wednesday:
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.