• UFC 117

Sonnen tells 'dummy' Silva to stop 'picking opponents'

Chael Sonnen dominated Nate Marquardt to earn his title shot © UFC

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Chael Sonnen has labelled Anderson Silva a 'dummy' who 'picks his opponents' ahead of their UFC 117 title showdown on August 7.

Sonnen took part in a bizarre phone conference earlier this week, which saw Silva answer with yes or no answers to the majority of questions faced. Sonnen, who is the No. 1 contender in the middleweight division, took it upon himself to promote the fight - although he made the astonishing admission that he is yet to study videos on his Brazilian opponent.

Silva is yet to lose in 11 UFC fights, earning him the reputation as arguably the greatest pound-for-pounder in the world, and he has seen off various wrestlers of Sonnen's ilk in the past, including Dan Henderson. Sonnen insists there is little point studying the Muay Thai master though, claiming you cannot plan for where a fight will go.

"I come from a wrestling background, and the way that works, you show up on a Saturday morning, you weigh in, and two hours later, you're on the mat with anybody who showed up. Twenty minutes later, you're on the mat with whoever won his other match," Sonnen explained.

"So throughout the day, you have five, six matches, you have no idea who's going to show, you have no idea who's going to win and who you're going to get paired against. And it shouldn't matter. You know, the opponent just doesn't matter.

"Guys [like Silva] go out and they pick their fights and they take easy fights, fighting math teachers from Ohio (Rich Franklin) and one-legged guys from Canada (Patrick Cote). This is going to be a tremendous difference when he gets in with an All American from Portland, Oregon."

Responding to Silva's lack of promotional work in the build-up to the fight, with the champion claiming he prefers to do his talking in the ring, Sonnen insisted it was time he was taught some respect come August 7.

"He comes on here and says something stupid as though he's saying some Nobel Prize winning statement. He couldn't have this industry more backwards.

"It's shocking that he actually believes and then stands there with his chest out like we should all pat him on the back and go, oh, good job Anderson. You're training really hard. Well, guess what dummy, I've been training really hard since I was nine years old and I still have time to bring interest to what people see in me with your ass on August 7."

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