Chael Sonnen attacked by Brazilian fan at TUF 17 Finale
Talk about taking things a little too seriously. It seems one Brazilian fan in particular took the words Chael said regarding Brazil and it’s people to heart and held them there for the past year or so.
The man obviously held the grudge right up until the moment where he finally found his opportunity to lash out and exact his revenge.
According to Chael who spoke with MMA Junkie in a interview recently, the man called him over to the stands, and being the fan friendly professional that he is, Chael obliged only to be a split second away from receiving a black eye.
Were it not for the quick reflexes of the security guard on duty, the situation could have very well ended up ugly. According to Chael:
“It was very quick, like those things typically happen, I was visiting with some fans, and a gentleman had started in on me. Ultimately, that’s what it led to.
As far as the act goes I think it’s absolutely disgusting for a fan to make an attempt at using violence on an athlete just because they disagree with something he’s said. In this particular case Chael plays it politically correct and shoots straight on where he stands and see’s the situation:
“I think a fan can do anything they want. I think they can heckle, a fan can boo, but they can’t touch you. But the same thing goes for me. I can yell at a fan too, but you can’t touch them. If you want to be a fan, you buy the ticket, and you can have any energy you want, whether it’s positive or negative. And in this case it was negative, and he went a little too far.”
“It was really quite interesting,” Sonnen said. “He was caught literally a quarter-second before it would have landed. I barely saw it coming in before a gentleman named Kaya stepped in and caught it.”
Interesting and classy to note that Sonnen claims he wouldn’t have struck back. Which I’d say is extremely lucky for the over reactive fan, because the last thing you’d want is to take a swing at a professional fighter and piss them off:
“We only compete in highly regulated and sanctioned matches,” he said. “I’m not a fan of that, but if he would have connected, I would have turned the other cheek and walked away. I certainly wouldn’t have engaged him.”
“The guy seemed like a perfectly nice guy. He was an Anderson Silva fan. He was backing Anderson Silva verbally. For it to turn physical, yes, that was a surprise. But until that point, he just seemed like a guy with a passion for his favorite fighter.”
