Issue 117

July 2014

Chael Sonnen reveals how he set out to play the heel on TUF Brazil until rival coach Wanderlei Silva failed to learn his lines and things turned nasty.

As grudges go, they don’t get much bigger than that between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva. Sonnen drove deep into hostile territory as a coach on the TUF Brazil 3 series, opposite an MMA legend in his own country who fervently believes the American insulted not only him, but an entire nation. And ‘The Axe Murderer’ would not let up.

There was the push, the brawl, and the constant sniping. There were also the translations, the emotions and, at times, the tears. The pair were due to settle their differences in the Octagon on July 5th until Silva was scratched from the UFC 175 card and replaced by Vitor Belfort. Yet Sonnen is still desperate to settle the bad blood between the two as he relates to Fighters Only his compelling account of that nine-week sojourn to Brazil. “Dealing with Wanderlei was really hard. I never knew what I was going to get. That guy ran hot and cold,” Sonnen explains to FO. “It got to the point where I’d walk into the room and he’d put his mouthpiece in, as though we were going to fight. He had a real gang mentality. The more guys that were around him, the tougher he became. When it was just the two of us, he was fine.” Sonnen had traveled to South America knowing that Brazilians may have a certain view of him. After all, he had ripped into Brazil in the run-up to his two world title fights with former middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

“They (the Brazilian people) only knew what I’d shown them. So they perceived me exactly the way I intended them to perceive me. Often I was asked whether I wanted to apologize or set the record straight, but that was never on my mind. I was getting the reception I deserved to get, but I was also getting the reception I designed for myself to receive. I’ll live with it, for better or worse.

“What Brazil finally realized is that they were my accomplice. Brazil was never my enemy. I wanted to fight Anderson Silva and he wouldn’t fight me, so I had to go to the Brazilian people and make it about them as well. In the end, not only did I want to fight Anderson Silva, they also wanted to see me fight Anderson Silva. The Brazilian people and I had the exact same goal, but to make them my accomplice I had to first make them my enemy. They got that over time.”

When Sonnen arrived in Brazil he realized just how big the sport is there. And how well-known he’d become. “I’ve never experienced the kind of recognition I experienced in Brazil,” he says. “Everybody there knows about this sport; from the police officers at the airport to the fiight attendants and the pilots. They knew who I was as soon as I arrived.

“They all follow the UFC. Wherever I went, they’d heard of me. I had a good reception from everybody I met, but there are 200 million people in that country and I doubt I met 200.”

But it was very different with Wanderlei… “He wouldn’t address me and he wasn’t nice, but he was fine. Yet as soon as he had a few buddies and I didn’t, in goes the mouthpiece and out comes the profanity. I never knew whether the guy was drunk or just a jerk, or a combination of the two.

“On the upside, and to his credit, I thought he was a pretty good coach. He brought in excellent coaches – guys I’d look at and think, ‘Jeez, I’d love to work with that coach and pick his brain.’”

Sonnen realized he had to keep his wits about him from the very first day of filming, when Silva showed his cards early, and very boldly. Chael believes now it was also a clear error, tactically speaking.

“The biggest mistake Wanderlei ever made on that show was on the very first day, he pushed me. We had just picked teams and my team did not necessarily want to be my team. They didn’t know me very well. All they saw me as was a guy who came here and was unflattering about their country. But they were assigned to my team. I picked them, so they had to come. I knew they were all Wanderlei’s guys at this point.

“But right after we pick teams, before I’ve had a chance to give any sort of talk, Wanderlei pushes me. And when he did, my team jumped in to defend me and his team jumped in to defend him. The lines were drawn right there, thanks to him. He was winning the popularity contest up until that point. Once he pushed me, my team did not hesitate. The game was on.”

Sonnen insists he tried to get Wanderlei to understand the storyline they were involved in. “He didn’t understand a lot of things. I even had to pull him to one side and talk to him privately. I said, ‘Wanderlei, listen, let me explain this to you. I’m the bad guy. I said a bunch of bad things about Brazil and now I have to come here and answer for them. You get to be the good guy. You get to be the savior who comes in and shuts this brash American up. This is the storyline. This is why this whole thing is happening.’ 

“I don’t think he understood that. I then explained to him that for me to be the bad guy he had to be the good guy. He had to start being the good guy... The thing is, I don’t mind when the crowd boo, but he does. He can’t take it. He comes out, he rolls his little fists around while he stares at you with his beady eyes, and tries to act like a tough guy, but he’s not. He’s very sensitive and he gets his feelings hurt quickly.”

Then, of course, there was the point of conflict/attrition: the demanded apology, on camera in episode one. 

“He wanted an apology from me. That was his big thing. But I had to explain to him that the reason I wouldn’t apologise was because I wasn’t sorry,” explains Sonnen. “I’m glad I said what I said, I’d do it again, and I may say it again today. Before today is over, I may start the banter back up. That’s how much I don’t want to apologize.

“Again, I’m just trying to get the character back. I’m trying to establish his role and I’m trying to establish mine. And he was too stupid to pick up on it. He ripped off his microphone and he quit, leaving his guys, my guys and the production guys high and dry.”

Then there was the brawl. “It’s very regrettable. The main thing I was thinking as it began to escalate was, I need to diffuse this. I realized I had lost him. He was somewhere else. I was legitimately trying to calm him down, but the calmer I’d get, the angrier he’d become. As soon as a bully realizes his victim doesn’t want to fight, the bully ups the tempo and ups the ante.

“Ultimately, when that thing escalated I tried to talk him of the ledge repeatedly, but in the end, he just got too close. And I couldn’t let him within arm’s reach. That was the only rule I was following at that point. I regretted the whole thing, though. I don’t take any pride or bravado in throwing him down and beating him up outside of the Octagon.”

In a sense, the brawl diffused some things. The next day, UFC president Dana White lay down the law. “It calmed down a little after that, and after Dana got involved. First of all, Wanderlei’s henchmen were sent home. Secondly, Wanderlei now realized I could throw him down and beat him up any time I wanted to. That’s not great for him. After that, we saw a much nicer Wanderlei Silva.”

Chael adds: “I’m willing to go to Brazil and admit to everything, but Wanderlei has to do the same. He left Brazil 15 years ago and now lives in a gated community in Las Vegas with a golf course and a swimming pool.” Now Sonnen is on his soapbox. 

“Patriotism is the final refuge of a coward. Whenever somebody does something that’s illegal, awful or shameful, the final refuge of that coward will be, ‘I did it out of patriotism.’ Wanderlei Silva drives an Aston Martin. That’s the car James Bond has. It costs $180,000. Now he could have got himself a fully loaded Lexus, driven around in style and it would’ve cost $40,000.

“He could then have sent $140,000 to Brazil and built a school. But he didn’t do that. He only goes to Brazil with his hands out. He’ll take the Brazilian flag into a fight, but, when it’s over, he’ll put it down in the locker room, put his money in it, wrap it up like a satchel, throw it over his shoulder and get back on the same plane that I use to head back to America where he lives.

“Brazil quickly realized they had one guy who was being honest with them and, though he wasn’t telling them stuff they wanted to hear, he was telling the truth. The other guy was lying to them.”

He adds: “I don’t think Wanderlei ever planned on fighting me. He just thought he could act tough, demand an apology, bow out of the fight and still look a hero. Wanderlei Silva never even trained while we were out there. He broke a sweat about five times. I trained every day, two times a day. And it’s very hard training when you see the guy constantly outworking you.”

Despite their TUF showdown being called of, Sonnen says that when they eventually meet in the Octagon, which he feels they inevitably will do at some point, he’ll be taking no prisoners. “I’m going to walk right across that ring and start throwing punches at him, and eventually he’ll throw something back. When he does, I’m going to tackle him and he’s never going to get up.

“Burying the hatchet has never crossed my mind. I know when you compete against a guy at this level, or in a wrestling match, there’s a bit of a bond and you share an experience. That may very well happen. But it’s not on my mind and it’s not something I hope for or against. All I know is I’m mad and I’ve been mad for a while.

“I don’t think that going through life with a grudge is a good way to go. But I’ve got one with Wanderlei Silva and we’re eventually going to settle it. I can’t wait.” Nor can we...