At UFC 117 Chael Sonnen beat Anderson Silva for every minute of every round, until he tapped to a Triangle in the fifth. To prepare for submissions at Saturday’s world championship, Sonnen brought in ADCC champion Vinny Magalhães, who says he he will not be surprised if Sonnen submits Silva.
Eduardo Ferreira: And all these things Sonnen says, is it just to sell the fight? How is he when you get close to him? Is he bipolar or something?
Vinny Magalhães: Man, he might be bipolar but I’ve only met nice Chael. It’s quite the opposite. When I talk to him and all, and he probably doesn’t like people saying these things, he told me it’s all about advertizing, to sell the fight and he does something nobody in the sport does. The only other guy who came with the culture of selling the fight this way, and saying bad things about people was Brock Lesnar and he was not that successful, I mean, he was, but not completely. But not Chael. Actually he’s not a successful guy like Anderson in terms of technical abilities, but he sells the fight like nobody else does. On the first time I talked to him about this fight he apologized and said: sorry, but I have to sell 800 thousand,” so it’s nothing personal. So you can understand he’s only trying to sell the fight. Sometimes he goes one too far, but it’s the way he found of selling the fight. I guarantee you all this trashtalk will be reverted to PPV sells. Lately UFC sells about 300, 400 thousand. At Jon Jones’s fight, they sold 700 thousand but I’m betting for this Chael-Anderson fight it goes beyond a million, like a million and so. Everybody says there’s a personal side attached to it, so it’s a very busy fight they will put on.
EF: How is he doing on the ground? Is he better? Did you teach him how to defend that triangle choke?
VM: Everybody asks me is he better than the first time?. Well, he dominated Anderson on the floor. Did he make a mistake? Yes, he did. But Anderson was trying to fit this position the entire time and the guy got caught. On the last moments he end up being caught. Obviously he needed to work some more and correct some flaws here and there, but in the big picture Chael is a good fighter on the floor, he’s just not excellent, not prepared in terms of details like Anderson and other Brazilians. We’ve worked on many things, we worked the defense of the triangle, arm-bars, but my focus is on him controlling the fight like he did last time, but in positions that are comfortable for him. One thing I told him I didn’t like was that he kept the tight guard and on a very low posture. We tried to change that. if he has the chance to break into Andersons guard, submit him in some positions I believe he will because he has great control when on the top. But we trained everything and I didn’t only train defense because, from where I’m standing, I guess for you to defend yourself from something you first have to be put on a bad situation and my idea is not letting Anderson get anywhere near that. We trained attacks and obviously the defense of finishes he had been mistaken about before, like the triangle choke.
EF: What are your predictions for this fight? Does Sonnen have chances to win?
VM: Man, it’s not only because I trained with him, but I believe he has a hard style for Anderson to defeat. I’m a fan of Anderson as a fighter and I guess he has proven to be the best fighter in the world in terms of results, but sometimes you’re much better than a guy here and there but the guy has one weapon which is so strong you can’t have it with him and I guess that’s the problem on this Chael-Anderson fight. Anderson might be much better then Chael on the floor, much better on the stand-up, but Chael’s style is hard on Anderson and I believe it will go the same way as the first one did: Chael taking him down and controlling him from the top. If he believes in his game, I believe he can submit Anderson this time. Now, if he doesn’t submit him, he’s gonna win via points.
