Will Silva-Sonnen live up to the hype?
SAN FRANCISCO – Six months ago, Anderson Silva defending his the middleweight title against Chael Sonnen would not have been considered a marquee event.
Saturday night's UFC 117 main event at the Oracle Arena in Oakland sees Silva trying to extend his UFC records, such as the longest winning streak in company history (11), most championship defenses (six) and longest championship reign (nearly 46 months).
Those records show why Silva (26-4) is generally considered the best pure talent in UFC. But over his nearly four years on top, he's rarely been able to translate that talent into drawing power.
Early on, fans didn't warm up to him because of a language barrier (Silva speaks Portuguese). More recently, boring title defenses against the likes of Patrick Cote, Thales Leitis and Demian Maia haven't helped his cause.
Silva certainly will pull big numbers when matched with a big name like Forrest Griffin. But Sonnen (24-10-1), until the last few weeks, was not a major name, even after upsetting Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt.
On Saturday night, we're going to see if Sonnen's body can cash the checks his mouth has been writing. And we're going to see if those checks will pay off when it comes to pay-per-view business.
Any amount in excess of 400,000 buys can be directly attributed to Sonnen doing, well, exactly the opposite of what he says he's doing. Silva couldn't draw more against bigger names like Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson.
Sonnen's big talk leading up to the fight has made him a star. But he will have to deal with a fighter so elusive that in his last three title defenses, opponents on average have only been able to land an average of one strike per minute.
"Yeah, absolutely, there's a lot of pressure on me," Sonnen said. "If you're carrying a card and fighting for the world championship, there should be pressure. I'm like a wounded animal backed into a corner. I've been calling this guy out for four years. I became the No. 1 contender on Feb. 6 [after beating Marquardt], and on Feb. 7 he put out a press release saying why he doesn't want to fight me."
While the media appearances have made Sonnen a legitimate UFC star, he said that's not the goal.
"I've certainly had a good run of exposure," he said. "I'm not here to get the silver medal and say that I was in the main event in UFC. I'm after the championship. Getting to beat up Anderson Silva is a bonus. … I'd give him a rematch that night. Beating Anderson Silva is like eating Chinese food. Twenty minutes after you're done, you want to do it again."
Sonnen has done a magnificent job of hyping the fight while denying exactly that. About Silva, ranked as the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter by Yahoo! Sports, "If he wins, it doesn't show that he's that good, it shows that I'm that bad."
He refutes that his zingers to reporters' questions are planned, even as the native of West Linn, Ore. lifted one of his lines directly from the catch phrases of an 1980s Oregon wrestling villain, Lynn "The Grappler" Denton.
Sonnen privately admitted to speaking with legendary wrestling talker "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who also lives in Oregon and whose son, Colt Toombs, is an MMA fighter that Sonnen has worked with. But he says Piper didn't help him in promoting the fight.
The challenger caused an uproar in recent days by claiming seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong was a fraud and that his testicular cancer was caused by usage of performance-enhancing drugs. Sonnen then created another firestorm by claiming he had never even spoken to Larry Pepe, the host of the radio show where Sonnen made the original claim. A clip of him speaking to Pepe aired on the UFC 117 countdown show. Thursday morning on Jim Rome's radio show, after Rome played the clip with the Armstrong claim, Sonnen said it was someone with a Hispanic accent.
While some are outraged, it's clear Sonnen's tongue is firmly planted in his cheek. The strategy, no different from what has made Brock Lesnar and Floyd Mayweather Jr. such big pay-per-view draws, is to entertain. And if they are outraged to the point where they want to see you shut up, well, that's good. The question is, will the crowd cheer his smack talk or jeer because they took him seriously?
"I want the crowd to be entertained," he said at Thursday's media conference at the Fisherman's Wharf Hilton. "I'm in the entertainment business. But again, I don't mean to talk all about Anderson Silva. I'm after the belt. I've fought five world champions and beaten them all. I've fought 12 guys in the top 10 and beaten 10 of them. He's accomplished more in this company, but not overall."
But amidst all the fun and frivolity, what's behind the comedic mask? At first Silva appeared to be laughing, but he no longer seems amused.
"I'm relaxed for this fight," he said through interpreter Ed Soares. "I'm used to fighting idiots like him that are talking about me. It's a constant battle. I've beaten idiots all over the world. I realize I can't tell you who is going to win, but let's see how he's acting tomorrow at the weigh-ins."
Silva's staredown seemed to indicate he means business, as he wouldn't take his eyes off Sonnen even when he was supposed to look forward and pose for photos.
Sonnen is a 9-2 underdog. It wouldn't be the biggest upset in UFC title history if he was able to grind his way to victory, but it would rank high on the list.
"I'm sore, I'm tired, I'm under the weather, overtrained, undermotivated and still tough enough to beat this guy," Sonnen said.
While few give him a chance, he comes in with a strong wrestling game. He started wrestling at the age of 5 and never played any other sport. He said he has never watched a baseball, basketball or hockey event in his life. He came from a wrestling family, and at one time was an Olympic team hopeful. But it's not about credentials in another sport.
The key is that he's been successful on 72 percent of his takedowns in UFC competition, including matches against top-notch takedown defense specialists like Okami and Marquardt. Both of those fighters have been better than Silva in keeping from being put on their backs.
But none of his opponents possessed Silva's speed and the ability to punish for a failed attempt.
Seeing Mark Munoz, a top-level wrestler and Silva's training partner, unable to take down Okami in San Diego on Sunday night, and remembering that Sonnen took the same Okami down at will when they fought, Sonnen says he has a shot to win if he can implement that game plan.
But Sonnen has to continually do this for five rounds, and avoid getting cut or submitted while on the ground. Seven of his 10 losses have been via submission, usually in fights he was winning until getting caught.
For all of Sonnen's talk about never losing a fistfight, if the match stays standing for any length of time, he will deliver his lines at the postfight media conference without a straight face.
