Sonnen criticizes Wanderlei's stance on TUF Brasil: 'I'm embarrassed for him'

Arguments between Wanderlei (left) and Sonnen (right) are frequent scenes in TUF Brasil 3. Photo: Reproduction/YouTube

The rivalry between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei, technicians from reality show The Ultimate Fighter Brasil 3, already had something to talk about in the first episodes of the program. Soon after defining which athletes would enter the house, the Brazilian demanded that the American apologize for things he said in the past, otherwise, Wanderlei would not participate in the season. Even with Sonnen's refusal to apologize, the former PRIDE champion backed down and recording continued.

In an interview with “GloboEsporte.com”, Sonnen revealed that the episode was more complicated than it seemed during the program. Furthermore, he did not fail to criticize Wanderlei's stance. “He’s so stupid, I’m so embarrassed for him,” he said. “He’s a checkers player. This means that in checkers you have one move at a time. If you're a chess player, I have to guess what you're going to do after I do something and plan my next move, I have to be three or four moves ahead.”

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“Then he comes – oh, my God, he's so stupid, and I'm not trying to insult him. Stupid is a real word – he comes and says, 'if you don't apologize for everything you said about Brazil, this show won't go ahead'. As a true checkers player would do, he never imagined I would refuse to apologize,” Sonnen continued.

According to the former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger, Wanderlei's stance only put himself in a delicate situation. “When I refused [to apologize], all he could do was give up. He put himself in check! It wasn't me who did this! He has put himself in a position where he has to give up. So he gave up, and the show stopped! They had to call Dana White [president of the UFC], the producers. The show is almost over. I had to beg him to come back, and it didn't work. Ultimately, he called a taxi and the taxi picked him up. The producer had to stop him in the taxi and make him come back”, explained Sonnen.

Despite all the controversy generated by his past statements, Sonnen does not see the need to apologize, as that would not be a sincere gesture on his part. “The producers said to me, ‘We might need you to apologize,’ and I said, ‘I can’t. It's not an ego thing. I don't feel guilty about any of that! I can't apologize, they will just be words, but they will have no meaning. I'm glad I did it. I thought it was fun. I can do it all again – today!’ I said that to Wanderlei. I said “Wanderlei, I can’t apologize, because I don’t feel guilty. It worked. I wanted to fight Anderson, I did it, I liked doing it. I found it fun. I can do it again today! Before the end of the day, I can go back to using the same material.’ He was very angry, he looked like a cartoon character, with smoke coming out of his ears”, he joked.

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