UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen has been very public and vocal about his disdain for UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva. As many fighters and celebrities do, he is using Twitter to get his message across.
Sonnen will face Silva on Aug. 7 at UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif., for the title. Last week, Sonnen gave Silva a hint of what his game plan will be going into the fight:
“Anderson, you are going to be on your back more than a pornstar with a mortgage.”
On Sunday, Sonnen warned Silva he will not be fighting Rich Franklin, the former UFC Middleweight Champion who Silva knocked out to become champion, and then knocked out again in a rematch:
“A.S. Your run is T- 70 days. I’m not a math teacher from Ohio, I’m a gangster from Oregon. Talk is cheap, it takes money to buy whiskey.”
Sonnen is a “gangster from Oregon?” For someone who is running for State Representative on the Republican platform, that type of language has the potential to come back and haunt him.
If Sonnen’s verbal assault upon Anderson Silva was not enough, yesterday he sent these instructions to Silva’s manager, Ed Soares:
“Ed, pray to whatever Demon effigy you prance and dance in front of with your piglet tribe of savages that I decide not to CRUCIFY you.”
“Piglet tribe of savages?” We just came off the “Rampage vs. Evans” fight which was promoted as the biggest bad blood match in UFC history, and the trash talk went to unprecedented levels. And now this.
Are fighters starting to see the attention trash talk brings and purposely increasing it to hype the fight? Are we getting manufactured beef? That is a dangerous WWE-type road most purists would argue the sport should stay away from.
Is Sonnen using this talk as a way to get into Silva’s head? Does that make it acceptable?
Up until this point, at least comparatively, all of Silva’s UFC opponents showed great respect for him going into the fight. How will he react against someone who shows him virtually no respect?
There is still over two months to go until Sonnen and Silva clash. Good or bad, at the very least Sonnen has people talking, and is doing a good job of keeping his name in the headlines.
Chael Sonnen – Oregon Gangster…LOL