Are Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva the Coaches On the Next Season of TUF?

At the tail end of Chael Sonnen’s exclusive post-CSAC hearing interview he did with Mike Straka last week, the former UFC number one middleweight contender told the HDNet reporter that he knew what was up next for him, he just couldn’t say because it was “a secret at this point.”

Now I may be reading into that statement and the fact that Sonnen has been hellbent lately on calling out Wanderlei Silva at every turn, but if I had to wager a guess as to what the UFC had on tap for “The Most Interesting Man in the World” it would be a TUF coaching slot opposite “The Axe Murderer.”

Sure the season would require subtitles pretty much every time Wand opens his mouth, but they had to do the same with the Brits on the USA vs. UK season, so it’s not like that will turn away viewers, especially when you have as polarizing of a persona as Sonnen opposite him.

I interviewed Chael prior to his fight with Nate Marquardt and he was unusually complimentary of his opponent. When I asked him why, he told me that he basically wasn’t in character yet that far out from the fight and that if I called him a few weeks before the fight he’d be on his game. He also said that it’s tough to smack talk a guy he likes like Marquardt.

To me, that says one of two things about the Wanderlei Twitter assault he launched the day after his CSAC meeting using his account which has been inactive since the news of his positive drug test hit and which he used to repeatedly roast Anderson Silva and his manager, Ed Soares leading up to his last fight: 

He must really want a fight with Wand.

or

He must already have a fight with, or a slot on TUF coaching opposite Silva lined up.

Here’s the backstory and the evidence that prompted my educated guess after the jump:


The seed for the rivalry was planted when Wand confronted Chael about derogatory remarks about Brazil he made leading up to his UFC 117 fight with Silva.

(Video courtesy WandFightTeam)

Here’s the break down of the conversation they had a few months back:

“I’m thinking. You sell the fight, you make a promotion, it’s good, but you need to be careful talking about some things, like Brazil. You’re talking bad things about Brazil,” Silva said, seeming to channel Don Corleone. “You don’t know Brazil. When You’re something you don’t know, you need to respect that thing.”

“Sure. That’s not totally true,” Sonnen replied with a smirk. “I’ve been to Brazil, actually.”

That’s like me saying I know about construction because I’ve been to Home Depot.

Silva sees it the same way.

“No, no, you’ve been to Brazil, but I am Brazilian. Like you’ve been talking about the Nogueira brothers. These guys are the history of the sport; we need to respect these guys. You challenging him is okay. You know. One to one, you know? The promotion is good, but you need to respect some things,” Silva asserted, obviously a bit more irritated with Sonnen’s smugness. “These guys need respect; and the country, you know? We need to have a good conduct about that. Okay? Don’t do that anymore, because that’s danger, no?”

“Sure, ” Sonnen replied half-heartedly.”

“In Brazil we have a saying: ‘You have respect, you don’t lose your teeth.’ In Brazil we say that,” Wand said matter-of-factly without breaking his gaze on Chael, who looks like he wants out of the car. “Give respect, because we don’t know about the future, no?”

“Sure. Thank-you,” Chael replied before Jennifer Wenk, the UFC’s director of PR intervened and told them to get along.

Chael then gave this backstage interview after his UFN 22 UFC Fight Club Q&A and not only questioned the legitimacy of Big Nog’s injury that forced him out of the bout with Mir, but also took a shot at “The Axe Murderer’s” record when dissing Nogueira’s replacement, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic:

(Video courtesy YouTube/Fighters Only)

Here’s what Chael tweeted the day after his CSAC hearing:
“Wand, you might as well fill out your own toe tag. Where is says “Cause of death,” just write, “I pissed off a Gangster.”

And here is Silva’s reply:
“Sonnan you start tolk about me, becarful or you go need call to your dentista”

Chael responded with:
“All broken pieces of Wand will be half off on Greenlightdaily.com. Where ya at little guy, worried that I’ll understand you this time?”

And then Tweeted this today:
“Take your comebacks, write them down on a sheet of paper. Roll it up tight, soak it in water, freeze it overnight, then jam it up your ass.”

Chael seems to be expending a lot of time and energy on Wand if he doesn’t have something on the go with the former PRIDE star.