Anderson Silva is widely regarded as the best pound-for-pound mixed
martial artist in the world. Chael Sonnen disagrees and said he’s shocked by the amount of love Silva is
given by a group that the fighter actually disrespects.
"You want me to let you in on a secret, Anderson Silva speaks perfect English," Sonnen told MMAWeekly Radio. "He
just has such a low amount of respect for you and all the rest of the media that
he pretends he doesn’t. I’ve had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect
English, and on top of that he’s so boring to listen to that he and his rocket
scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass
grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do
the talking."
Sonnen says the media is being clowned and doesn’t even know it.
"It’s quite ironic that all the media comes on and talks about how great this guy
is for reasons that are completely un-understandable to me. How great Anderson
Silva is, and all of us fighters are in the back going, ‘jeez, they’re out there
massaging his ego, Anderson hates them so much, he pretends he can’t understand
them."
The
notion that the "media" doesn’t know what’s going on, isn’t entirely
true.
Cagerwriter’s Maggie Hendricks pointed out after UFC 97 that Soares’ wasn’t
asking Silva certain questions or at least filtering them. It’s also
clear that Silva understands a lot of the questions being tossed his
way by English speaking media members. Check out this pre-UFC 97 interview (1:57 mark) where Silva seems to understand much of what is being said and stares down the interviewer a bit. Or this interview where the media got to sit on the floor to speak with the middleweight champ.
Let’s make it clear, athletes can be uncooperative, disrespectful or even rude, but in putting together these pound-for-pound lists the media isn’t worth a damn unless they can put aside their petty differences with the fighters. I’m not a huge fan of the way Silva handles his media duties but you have to give him his due in the cage.
Sonnen refuses to do saying, "That guy’s no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods.
That is an absolute myth."
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