Chael Sonnen is already writing more checks with his mouth.
Not moments after the conclusion of an odd five-round boxing match in Brazil against longtime rival Anderson Silva, Sonnen was up to his old tricks on the mic. There was no official winner due to the bout being booked as an exhibition, but Silva appeared to overpower Sonnen over five rounds. MMA Fighting scored the fight 50-45 in Silva’s favor.
That wasn’t how Sonnen saw it.
“I thought I won the first three rounds,” Sonnen said in a post-fight media scrum. “You have to understand, he let me win the first one. He always lets me win the first round. That’s one of his strategies, he senses you. He lets everybody win the first round, and I did the same thing in rounds 2 and 3 as I did in the first round.
“But I slipped somewhere in the fourth round, and then they brought the doctor in at some point because I had a bloody nose or something. It’s like, come on, you’re making this look a lot worse than it is. It was three rounds to two, I thought I won that fight.”
Sonnen has often boasted that not only is he undefeated (in fact, he owns a 31-17-1 record in MMA), but that he also overpowered Silva in their previous UFC fights. At UFC 117, Sonnen dominated Silva with his grappling for more than 20 minutes before Silva caught him with a triangle armbar submission in the fifth round. In their rematch at UFC 148, Silva defeated Sonnen by TKO in the second round.
With his liberal interpretation of how fights are done, Sonnen explained how he still has the advantage over “The Spider.”
“You have to understand that the last two games, whether I like it or not, were shutout losses, so the draw is a big step in the right direction,” Sonnen said. “On the other hand, of the six finished rounds I’ve had with Anderson Silva, I’ve won all six. He’s never won a round against me, that’s the reality.
“Tonight he won rounds, so big for me to get a draw, big for him to win a round.”
While Silva has yet to reveal his plans after his third fight with Sonnen, there is no uncertainty on Sonnen’s part about what happens next. He wants a piece of former UFC star Jorge Masvidal.
“This was just part of the process,” Sonnen said. “I box Jorge Masvidal. I got called up for that fight, I’ve agreed to that fight, that was all part of the training process, and I learned some things tonight. Anderson, when he comes off, he cheated on me a number of times, and I don’t like being cheated there. I like to see that kind of thing coming. But, I mean, he’d move one way and hit you with the other, he’d show you his right hand and then hit you with his left. He was very tricky and he was very fast.
“I’m just saying that because the guy is the best part of 50. If he tricks me to the point where he can get me, I have to respect Jorge Masvidal a little more than I wanted to.”
Currently, Masvidal is booked to fight Nate Diaz in a boxing match on July 6th. Masvidal has regularly traded public barbs with Sonnen, which Sonnen has not shied away from responding to.
With Masvidal’s dealings with Diaz resolved, Sonnen expects the former “BMF” champion to follow up on all the talk and meet him in the ring.
“Masvidal is a bit overrated, in all fairness, in his own mind,” Sonnen said. “I can’t remember the last time he won a fight. He gave me a threat, he said, ‘I won’t even use my right hand. I put it in the contract. I say, ‘Okay, stupid, put it in the contract. I didn’t ask for it, but put it in there. Then he talks about, “I’ll pay you $10 million.” Well, I didn’t ask for $10 million, but put it in the contract. Just keep talking.
“It’s only going to get worse for Jorge Masvidal. There are some people you play with, there are some people you don’t; put me in the ‘don’t’ category. Don’t challenge me if you don’t want to fight me.”
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