This guy is a crook. He is the scum of the sport. He doesnt deserve to be in the UFC. He had problems with the American justice system. He had problems with banned substances. He is a moron. And on July 7th, Im going to break his face. Im going to rip all his teeth from his mouth.
Anderson Silva
Two years ago, Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen went more than 23 minutes in a fight that set a number of statistical records and ended up as one of the most memorable fights in UFCs history.
Going into the rematch, the questions are, what can we learn, and what can the two fighters learn from the first match? The second question revolves around business. What can the biggest match of the year do with some of the best hype and build, yet aside from the core fan base, few will have seen most of the hype?
There is little doubt to the hardcore MMA fan, this is the biggest match of the year. But even with days remaining, its impossible to get a gauge on if itll do the elusive million buys, or even come close, because the type of people needed to draw those kind of numbers arent going to have seen the hype specials. Commercials for UFC 148 have played everywhere, so any sports fan who watches ESPN, or sports on cable, would be aware theres a big fight this weekend, and may even have a vague idea its a rematch of a fight one guy dominated for almost its entire duration and the other guy won.
A big factor is how big will ESPN cover it on their sportscasts in the day or two leading to the fight. If its big, with lots of quotes, and treated as the major, or a major sports event of the weekend, that can make a big difference. ESPN has done that with major UFC events of the past, but that was usually when ESPN had interest in possibly getting the product at some level. Now, the product is in the rival FOX family until at least the end of 2018, which changes the dynamic. This is the biggest fight, by far, since that dynamic has changed and it will set a precedent, either good or bad, in how the biggest UFC fights get covered.
UFC 148 at first looked to be the biggest show since UFC 100. But the loaded lineup, aside from the main event staying intact, got largely gutted due to injuries, both to the show before, this show, and the show after. Its also the first International Fight Week, the first of a planned annual tradition, an idea brought up at first by the Las Vegas Tourism Board. The idea was to give Las Vegas an annual major sports event that, depending on who you talk to, is either UFCs answer to WrestleMania or to the San Diego Comic Con. The idea of a big show that in time becomes bigger in the culture than the genre itself. At least thats the idea. This years event features a Fan Expo, pool parties, an art show, two concerts, a Hall of Fame induction, pub crawls and more. Next year is supposed to be significantly bigger.
The show also has a secondary curiosity event with the Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin III fight. The fight matches two of the best known UFC names from the era where the biggest audiences were watching free television. Both have strong track records as draws, but are past their primes and havent been difference makers for a while. Ortiz has only won one fight since the end of 2006, which is amazing when you think about it. But its being pushed as his retirement fight and that is a stronger than usual hook for a No. 2 bout. Love him or hate him, Ortiz has been one of the most recognizable names and faces in UFC for more than a dozen years. It was never more clear than when, for a brief second, time was turned back when he finished Ryan Bader last year. But with the benefit of hindsight, that wasnt the return of the old Tito as much as one of those things that sometimes happens because of all the variables of an MMA fight.
If the Urijah Faber vs. Dominick Cruz fight had held together, it would be the most loaded show in a few years. But Cruz was injured and Fabers replacement fight was moved two weeks later to save the Calgary show.
There were some tickets remaining at press time, but they were mostly very expensive seats. Make no mistake about it. Demand is high. At press time, there were only 284 tickets available on Stubhub, all at way above market value, and ridiculously small number for a sold out show.
There are closed-circuit locations all over Las Vegas airing the show, although no giant singular party that will have thousands like they had for UFC 100. The house was scaled for $7 million if every seat was sold at face value. To get an accurate advance for Las Vegas is almost impossible because you have tickets sold to the public and tickets sold to casinos. Tickets sold to the public were about $4 million a month back. The only thing regarding tickets to casinos were that with them, it was expected this would be the second biggest gate in UFC history, trailing the April 30, 2011 show at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Right now, the No. 2 figure is $5,441,290 for UFC 100. With casino buys, were told this will top that figure, not even including the closed circuit figures throughout the city.
But its really all about what most consider the biggest fight in 20 months, or history, depending on how you view it. In UFC history, there have been a few gigantic grudge matches--Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock II and III, Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir II. B.J. Penn vs. Georges St. Pierre II, Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell II, St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck and Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans. This fight will be added to this list. Exactly where becomes a matter of opinion.
It will likely not do anywhere close to UFC 100 numbers. Those other fights have ranged from about 775,000 to 1,050,000 buys, and thats probably the range here. It should do bigger than Evans vs. Jon Jones, which to me fell just shy of making this list. That was only just over two months ago and the landscape and popularity of UFC hasnt changed since late April. It doesnt, to me, feel like Ortiz vs. Liddell or Lesnar vs. Mir. Evans vs. Jackson should not be as big, but it had two huge advantages, the grudge playing out over 13 weeks of the highest rated season of The Ultimate Fighter, and an awesome Prime Time series that drew record ratings, with more than 1 million viewers. Plus, there was an element of violent appeal to that one, even if it never actually transpired. Not that this fight doesnt have it, but not as strong. But this is also a title fight, with the longest title reign and winning streak in UFC history at stake. By all rights, it should be bigger.
If Sonnen vs. Silvas Prime Time show had ended up on FOX, which was the goal, that would have likely been the difference maker. You can read whatever you want about that deal not happening (FOX instead will be doing two hype shows this year, but only to build their own events in August and December). HBO and Showtime bent over backwards to make sure the big boxing hype specials were seen by as many people and in good time slots, but they also were partners in those PPV shows.
Whatever this show does on PPV, for those reasons, it will not have reached its potential. The two hype shows, both the 60 minute Countdown and 30 minute Prime Time show aired on Fuel, with some time buys on various sports channels, and with one post-midnight airing on FX on a holiday night. No matter how compelling the two fighters were in those pieces, and they were, the casual audience didnt see any of it. My feeling is that virtually everyone who watches the hype show on Fuel already knew about the fight to begin with.
Still, this is a grudge match that has had two years to build and simmer. On February 6, 2010, in Las Vegas, Chael Patrick Sonnen became the mouth that roared minutes after he beat Nathan Marquardt to become the No. 1 contender. He shocked all of those in attendance at the press conference with his delivery and how strongly he challenged Silva, and he got more and more attention, and made himself more of a star, every week until building strong momentum for a fight that otherwise nobody would have cared out.
On August 7, 2010, at the Oracle Arena, and to borrow a Sonnen catch phrase, Live only on pay-per-view, the first match did about 600,000 buys. Silva has had title defenses, including his last one, that barely did half that. But at the end of the day, the awareness and curiosity levels everywhere indicated bigger numbers. The difference was likely that nobody actually expected that Sonnen would have a chance. Plus, people had been burned on three of the previous four Silva PPVs, as Sonnen spent more time taunting and not fighting, while making fun of two of his opponents, and did little against a mediocre contender (Patrick Cote) who came into the fight on one leg.
Sonnen insulted Silva, the country of Brazil, the Nogueira Brothers manager Ed Soares and anyone else he could think of with crafted lines he either came up with, or modified from watching heel wrestlers of his childhood.
A few hours before the fight, the feeling was that nobody in UFC history had ever done a more effective job with their mouth in making a fight that nobody was going to care about into one that was going to shockingly be, up to that point in time, the most looked forward to middleweight title match in UFC history.
But it was also believed the clock was ticking. When the clock struck midnight, at least on the East Coast, the dream would end in devastating fashion and Sonnen would turn from the crowned, or clowned in some peoples view, prince, into the frog, with nobody to kiss him back. Sonnen would probably be one of those footnote challengers people talk about years later. Guys that werent all-time greats or anything, but one day they had their match with the champion. They didnt necessarily do all that well, but something about the buildup made it memorable, whether it was their toughness, their uniqueness, or their willingness to go out their against a foe much better and die on their shield.
Maybe hed fight for a few more years and people would always remember how for one day he actually talked people into buying a show and got them curious about a match that deep down everyone knew he could never win. And maybe it would be a springboard for a pro wrestling career. Its not like significant players in WWE dont keep in regular contact with him and dont talk about his potential due to his verbal ability. But thats talk for another day, plus, either he or they would have to figure out a way around the companys rules against testosterone replacement therapy.
After all, Sonnen, going into the first fight, had a 25-10-1 record. He was good. He was tough. He was a very good wrestler, tenacious, but no better than a lot of other wrestlers in the sport. His striking was certainly not world class. And his submission defense was, based on results, lacking, and actually was the key thing that had kept him from winning several of his biggest fights. It was his wins over a stoned out of his mind Paulo Filho and out wrestling legitimate contenders Nate Marquardt and Yushin Okami that got him his match with Silva, not his verbal ability. But he was only supposed to be the next name on Silvas already record breaking winning streak.
So whether hes Ron Lyle, Scott LeDoux or George Chuvalo, for the rest of his life, back home in West Linn, OR, people around town would say, Hey champ, remember that night? and hed smile and fake grin and joke about how he was once in the ring with the best fighter of his generation.
Few remember that Silva went into that fight as damaged goods, not as a fighter, and not damaged goods due to a rib injury, but as an attraction from the fights with Thales Leitis, Demian Maia and Cote. Nobody knew what got into his head. It was so bad after the Maia fight that Dana White was making statements like perhaps his next title fight would be in the prelims rather than on a PPV, because he didnt know if he could sell a fight with him at that point. A few weeks before the fight, there was probably no more hated fighter in the UFC among the fans than Anderson Silva.
By fight time, that all changed. Sonnens promos took him from at one point being a cult favorite for the first guy who at least verbally would stand up to Silva, crossed a line, and he turned his Brazilian foe into the crowd favorite.
But something went very wrong, or very right, and quickly. Sonnen stunned Silva with a punch, and took him down. He started throwing punch after punch, battering Silva. The crowd that wanted to see Silva destroy Sonnen had changed its mind. All of a sudden they started liking Sonnen, because even though he was still going to lose, he was at least backing up his talk. He didnt back down or mentally break. He took it to the champion and actually dominated the round.
But Silva lost the first round of fights to wrestlers before. The script was still familiar. The wrestler gets tired, cant take him down, and they dont see round three. That was likely what people were thinking, even though by late in the first round, the crowd solidly had switched allegiances to Sonnen. At first, it was just that the heavy underdog was putting up a good fight.
Five minutes later, after a duplicate round, Chael Sonnen saw round three. And he dominated that round as well. Then came round four and Silva started unloading. Sonnen couldnt get the takedown right away, and Silva hurt him with punches. But Sonnen stayed in the game, and the flurry was short-lived. Most of the round was Silva on his back, getting pounded. When the fourth round was over, suddenly reality wasnt what it seemed. It probably wasnt until late in round four that most in the crowd actually realized Sonnen was going to win, and they wer seeing what would go down in history as one of the most legendary fights in UFC history.
At this point, Sonnen had won every round on every scorecard. One judge had given him one 10-8 round, another had given him two 10-8 rounds of the four. Thats how one-sided it really was. Only Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch and Rich Franklin vs. David Loiseau had ever won decisions that lopsided in UFC title history.
And the fifth round went the same. One of the biggest upsets in UFC history was only two minutes away. And then it didnt happen. Whether Silva pulled victory out of the jaws of defeat, or Sonnen had a mental lapse depends on ones perspective, whether they choose to view success or failure stronger.
UFC has so many fights and finishes that few remember them a few days after they happen. That triangle and tap will be one of the all-time lasting memories of the early years of MMA after it got back on U.S. television. Anderson Silva is destined to go down as an all-time great, and the moment hell most be associated in his career is that triangle off his back, even more than the Vitor Belfort front kick, at least unless something even more memorable happens this week.
Silva had only spent ten minutes on his back in his entire career up to that point. In this fight, he was on his back for 20 of the 23 minutes. Sonnen landed 320 total punches, a UFC single fight record. Thats more than the total punches Silva had eaten in his entire UFC career.
But the only record that really mattered was this. No UFC fight in history had ever gone 23 minutes, and didnt go the distance. In the 19-year-history of the company, it is the latest finish of a fight.
And then minutes later, Soares and Silva claimed Silva had gone into the fight with a cracked rib suffered barely a week earlier, and he was told by his doctor to cancel the fight. They claimed that was the only reason the fight went the way it did. Immediately, to a number of people, the first 23 minutes of the fight were discredited. Many tried to proclaim that as proof Sonnen could never beat Silva, even though he came 110 seconds from one of the most lopsided decisions in UFC title history. The number of punches landed didnt matter because Silvas face wasnt cut, and at no point in the fight was Silva on the verge of tapping, or the referee close to stopping it. Suddenly, the fact it was amazing he didnt win by decision meant that he could never beat Silva, as if a decision win isnt a win.
While most of the world that saw the fight were thinking that they couldnt wait for a rematch, Silva was saying that he won clean, which he did, and its over, which it obviously wasnt. But the rib injury nullified, in a lot of peoples eyes, everything they had seen up to that point as an illusion, a dream, and even in the dream, Sonnen lost. And depending on what happens Saturday, that may be the correct way of looking at it. Then Sonnen tested positive, and it became a double illusion.
Sonnen had done something nobody else had ever done. Yeah, a few guys submitted Silva long before his UFC days, but nobody ever took him down and beat him up, round after round. But for those who dont want to credit him for that, its easy to do so. You can say Silva had a broken rib and Sonnen was juiced to the gills, and Sonnen still couldnt beat him. How Soares tells it, it was Andersons worst day and Chaels best day, everything went right, and Anderson still won. The position domination, punching record, guard passes on the ground against someone with a black belt, outstriking the best striker in the history of the sport on his feet in most of the exchanges, well, the injury, the juicing, the triangle at the end, there were plenty of reasons to dismiss any if not all of it if one chooses.
Chael Patrick Sonnens best friend and worst enemy is Chael Sonnen. His best friend trains diligently, knows his strengths and usually works toward them. Hes an athletic overachiever. He doesnt have blinding speed or super strength. Hes not great in any facet of athletics, and with the exception of wrestling, was never all that successful growing up in any other sport. But he was successful in a sport where mental toughness, conditioning and endless drilling in basics can pave the way to success against men who dont sacrifice as much. His best friend has the ability to build up a fight like no other, and deliver a line with a level of conviction few can match.
But his worst enemy doesnt know when to stop when hes ahead, sometimes crossing the line to where he becomes so entertaining that people dont take him seriously, or veering off subject for the sake of attention and diverting it from the goal of selling the fight. He has to say something to get attention every time he opens his mouth and theres a microphone within sight. For every memorable line, theres the ones where he puts his foot in his mouth and then, gets people hating him Then he makes them hate him even more such as when he claimed a tape of an interview where he put his foot in his mouth was made by a Hispanic guy, or when he, while under oath, told a story about a conversation he had with Keith Kizer, a man he up to that point had never once spoken with. He was able to somehow blame that one on his manager, Matt Lindland.
And he does understand getting people to hate him isnt that bad a deal. People hated Superstar Graham when he was selling out Madison Square Garden, hated Roddy Piper at the first WrestleMania, and hated The Grappler when he looked into the camera and said, Beat me, if you can every Saturday night on Portland Wrestling. Hate among some was a good thing.
His best friends mouth is so good he can do TV commercials, be a successful real estate salesman and run for public office. His worst enemy thinks his mouth is so good it can get him out of any jam, no matter how deep. But its not, and today he cant sell real estate or run for public office.
A few months after the fight, on a road to his rematch, he wound up with a felony conviction on a lending fraud real estate case. Within a short period of time, he lost his real estate license, his political hopes were over because of the conviction, and his fighting career was on the brink of extinction when he tested positive for testosterone the night of the Silva fight, and was suspended.
His worst enemys mouth made up enough stories in a hearing that he got his suspension halved. Even when it looked like he had outfoxed the system, he was still his worst enemy, because within minutes of his suspension being cut, he was branded as a liar. Eventually that led to another hearing. In that one, he went for sympathy. If he was suspended again, he was told by Dana White he would lose his job and his career would be over. Clinging to the fool me twice, shame on me proverb, the commission suspended him again. White claimed he never said any of that. Almost nobody believed he did.
His best friend takes him to the cusp of greatness. His worst enemy pulls the rug out when hes finally about to achieve the big one that has always eluded him. It has happened every single time.
Whether it was the high school state championships, the NCAA tournament, the World University games, the Olympic trials, the WEC championship or the most thrilling UFC middleweight title fight in history, the story is the same. Hes in play the day of the big one. And he comes up short.
Its hard to say who or what the real Chael Sonnen is. Life is a game to him. When nobody else is around and youre having a conversation with him, no notebooks, microphones or cameras, hes a completely different person, soft-spoken, charismatic, charming, intelligent, witty. Hes as good as any at analyzing the action. But his alter ego has made him enemies, whether it be fighters who dont get what he s doing, people who actually take his words seriously, or those he insults for no reason, given hes never going to be making money fighting most of his targets.
But you never know if hes just putting on a different act. Is the one-on-one, Now Im not working Sonnen the real person, or just a different mask?
Ive been around Chael Sonnen a little in social situations, enough to see at least a different version of the person that is on the television screen. Once, minutes after he was suspended the first time, when he was avoiding talking to any media, he stopped and wouldnt say a word about what happened, but wanted to talk about the Honky Tonk Man and his record setting Intercontinental title reign and his fascination with wrestling title histories. Of course, the public Chael Sonnen has no time for pro wrestling, even as hes texting C.M. Punk or Gerald Brisco, or WWE officials are talking to him about his potential there due to his mouth when his fighting days are over. Ask Sonnen about pro wrestling at a press conference, and hell say he never watched it. Hell say when he was growing up, his family didnt have cable, and hell mention something about being a kid and being aware of famous boxers, but not wrestlers, from the 80s. Moments later, hell be trying to replicate promos from before he was born, by people like Superstar Billy Graham, that he memorized from watching on Youtube.
Theres only one moment that Ive seen Chael Sonnen where I had no doubt he was not putting on a show and the mask was off. It was a few minutes after the Silva fight. Whether it was thinking about a promise he made to his deceased father about finally winning the big one, or just the realization of both how close and yet so far he was from his ultimate goal at that moment, he was legitimately devastated. He couldnt put into words how it happened one more time, the same feeling, the same history repeating, only on a 10,000 times bigger scale, of the 17-year-old boy in the Oregon state high championship match.
