Dana White Reveals Reason Behind Silva vs. Sonnen Being Moved To UFC 175
The beef between Wanderlei Silva and Chael Sonnen goes back years, and has come to the boil during their recent stint on TUF: Brasil 3; the two fan favorites collided in a scuffle on set, and were joined by most of the cast members and trainers. The scrap appeared a little contrived, but UFC president Dana White thinks differently.
Check out what the Baldfather had to say to MMAJunkie:
“There’s a bunch of idiots in the media saying, ‘That thing looks contrived’; it was far from contrived. That thing was a disgusting display of what shouldn’t happen, and if I was there it would have never happened. “The fact that there were other people, even people holding camera in that f–king place and let that happen is just beyond belief. Then the kid who runs in and sucker-punched Chael from behind, it’s just as bad as it can get.”
The fight between Sonnen and Silva appears to have been very real, according to White at the least. DW actually goes on to say that an injury sustained in the brawl caused the coaches battle to be moved from the finale in May:
“What happened was Wanderlei got hurt in that fight, he got double legged on the concrete and he hurt his back. He hurt his hand punching Chael in the head and got injured. He couldn’t fight on time because he got hurt in the fight f—ing coaching a show. I’m done being angry now. I was angry when it happened. It’s just disgusting.”
This could be yet another epic media troll by the king of promoting fights, but it seems to me that White was genuinely unhappy about what happened in Brazil. Sonnen has been critical of Silva’s actions throughout the show, and certainly didn’t want any part of fighting Silva before the scuffle erupted.
As long as Silva recovers in time, the only fight that matters is the one at UFC 175. When that time comes, will the mental games and constant trash talk have created the greatest MMA rivalry ever?
