Chael Sonnen Questions Anderson Silva’s Cardio: Fan Reaction

MMA veteran Chael Sonnen talked a lot of trash leading up to his UFC 117 encounter against middleweight champion Anderson Silva. And he's sticking to the same strategy for his UFC 147 rematch with Silva, targeted for São Paulo, Brazil.

After issuing a mock apology to Silva a week ago, Sonnen took another jab at Silva in a recent video, while talking about one of his training programs - Cage Fitness.

"I ran into Ed Soares, Anderson's interpreter/manager in Las Vegas recently. And I was telling him about it [Cage Fitness]," Sonnen said. "'I'll tell you this Ed, before you sign the contract, come and do a workout with me. Because I guarantee you on a Cage Fitness based workout, Anderson Silva couldn't do five-fives [a workout simulating a five round fight]. Maybe you should just start with that before you get all big and puffy in the chest and decide to step into the cage with me.' … Let's change the topic because this is turning to a Cage Fitness commercial, that's not my intent here. What I want to do is talk about the Spider and the fact he's gonna get stomped and squashed on June 6^th."

Sonnen seems confident heading into his rematch with the best fighter in the history of MMA, and I'm sure the trash talk will continue right until their UFC 147 encounter. He does have a few reasons to be self-assured, considering the fact he's the only man that has actually dominated Silva inside the Octagon.

Sonnen's performance against Silva at UFC 117 does have a couple of asterisks, like his failed post-fight drug test and Silva's claim of a rib injury. Like all others who gave tried to dethrone Silva in the UFC, he'll probably fall short when it's time to back his words up. But I do think he deserves a lot of credit for his willingness to fight in Brazil.

When it comes to marketing in the UFC, Sonnen is definitely one of the best. And I'm sure his tactics will lead to record breaking numbers for the promotion at UFC 147.

David is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing practitioner that has watched and studied MMA for the past 7 years. Follow him on twitter @davidkingwriter and check out his blog.

Sources:

BJ Penn.com, "Sonnen: Silva can't handle five rounds of cage fitness"

Fight and fighter information from Sherdog.com

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