Another captivating tale from the UFC’s greatest ever trash-talker, Chael Sonnen.
The former UFC middleweight and light-heavyweight title contender made a very entertaining appearance on Monday’s MMA Hour in which he divulged some new information about the disastrous Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3 season.
Sonnen coached opposite Wanderlei Silva in the season which started off pretty terribly and only got worse, despite the fact that it introduced fans to quality fighters such as Warlley Alves and Antonio Carlos Junior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OzYp9yCic0
The infamous brawl that you saw in all the promos for the show almost didn’t happen as Silva threatened to walk out of the production on the first day of filming. Sonnen explained that he had to have a sit-down with the Pride legend to try to get him to stick it out, and to get him to stay, he resorted to a “dick move”.
“So I’m explaining this thing to him, and he’s telling me how to do it. ‘You’ve got to do this and you’ve got to do that.’ I just stop and I go: ‘Wanderlei, stop. Between us, just stop. I am the highest paid fighter in the history of the sport. I’m the biggest draw in the history of this sport. Do you really think you should be giving me advice, or should you be taking it? Should you be copying me?’”
“He just tore right into me. This is the d**k part. So, I’m on my phone. I’ve got my phone, I bank with Bank of America, I’ve got a mobile app. I log into my Bank of America app and I just show it to him. And I said, ‘do you really think that you should be giving me advice, or should you just come along for the ride and let me take it from here?’”
According to Sonnen, that was enough to convince Silva to carry through with filming.
“And his whole expression, he didn’t say it but he was like, alright, let’s go do the show. And that’s actually where that ended. I know that makes me a prick, but that’s what changed him right there, is I freaking showed him, ‘hey, I know what I’m doing here. You do your thing and let me carry us.’”
And then not long after, they brawled.
