Chael Sonnen rips Anderson Silva at UFC fan session

By Brett Okamoto

Friday, June 11, 2010 | 11:54 p.m.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — Top middleweight contender Chael Sonnen was the honorary guest at Friday's official weigh-in for UFC 115 at the GM Place.

Sonnen spent an hour before the weigh-in answering questions from fans and, as expected, using the time to continue his verbal warfare against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.

The two will settle their differences in the octagon Aug. 7 at UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif., and Sonnen has stated that's when all the talking will stop — until then, however, it's likely he'll keep the chatter going.

Here are a few highlights from the session.

What is it about Anderson Silva that you dislike the most?

The one thing is there is jealousy on my part. He's got what I want. Envy keeps me up at night, and there can only be one champion.

Silva has "clowned" a few of his recent opponents. How will you respond if he does that to you?

I've never had anybody do that to me in practice or in a fight, so it's going to be something new if he does it. A lot of that is his mystique and how he sets things up. I think he's a pretty good striker, but I think he's an awesome set-up guy. He's got a lot of movement, and I've been working at practice to not pay attention to it.

Silva is actually pretty good at jiu-jitsu, too. What are you expecting out of him on the ground?

Yeah, when you get him down you're not out of the woods yet. But he has a black belt from the Nogueira brothers, which is like getting a toy in your happy meal if you ask me. One of them is a punching bag and the other is really just irrelevant. He does stay active on the ground, though. He has good elbows and strikes so he poses a problem there, too.

You've been writing some statements on Twitter recently about Silva and his manager, Ed Soares. Can you clarify what you meant with some of those?

The truth is, I don't have a Twitter account. The one thing that bothers me about those, besides that they were confusing, was that it only said "Ed." Ed Soares has got to be getting pretty arrogant if he thinks he's like Cher and has only one name. What has he done besides becoming the world's most famous interpreter?

Your best chance of winning the fight will be to get it to the ground. What happens if you can't take him down, though?

If Chael Sonnen cannot get it to the ground, then Chael Sonnen gets his ass kicked. There really is no Plan B and he doesn't have one either. I've got two plaques on my wall at home, though, that say I can take him down.

You're talking a lot of crap about Silva lately. Is that to promote the fight, or is it all real?

I am outing the guy. He's a fraud. He likes to get in the ring and bow — if you bow to him he'll hit you over your head and take your wallet. I'm the same way, though. I'll smile at him, and when he turns his back I'll stick a knife in it. I have called him out for four years, and he's fought everyone on the world who wasn't named Chael Sonnen. (The trash talk) has an effect on him. I ran into him in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago and, yeah, it's bothering him.

Will you stop talking once you get into the octagon with Silva or will the talk continue?

When the music hits and I make the walk to the ring it's pure focus at that point because I come from a real sport — wrestling. You take me to the Olympic Village and show me the center of Muay Thai. What is Muay Thai anyway? We know what Thai is, it's short for Thailand. But what is this "Muay" word? So what, he's good at Muay Thai? It's like the Crackerjack award he's got from the Nogueira brothers.

Would you want to be the first to fight Jake Shields if/when he comes to the UFC?

They keep talking about how great Jake Shields is — you should listen to the hype. He's a welterweight, though, so when he comes to the UFC that's where he'll be. I don't have a lot of friends in this business, but Jake Shields is one of them. He's a great guy, and when he gets here, he's going to be hard to stop.

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or [email protected].