Wand (right) and Sonnen (left) face each other on July 5th. Photo: Twitter/Reproduction
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If I could go back to the past, Wanderlei Silva would not avoid the controversial confusion with Chael Sonnen No. The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3, which ended in a fight shown on national television. The “Crazy Dog” guarantees that he does not regret what happened, although he recognizes that the action was wrong. Wand justified what happened, stating that his stance was necessary in light of Sonnen's behavior and that in the face of this he had to impose himself as a man.
“I think we have to regret something we didn’t do. I'm a professional athlete, so is the guy, we're both men, it's something that can happen to anyone in this situation. It's obvious that I'm not in favor of any type of violence and, in fact, I usually say that martial art works like this: we are martial art practitioners, we use our art strictly to defend ourselves. And what is the rule of martial art? I was telling him what I thought of him, but I hadn't touched him yet. From the moment the guy touches you, he broke the rule, understand? He broke the rule, pushed me and then I felt disrespected. So I thought: 'Okay, let's see what it is'. And then it happened quickly, it was just a warm-up, no one was seriously hurt. Between dead and injured, everyone survived. It was a wrong action, but a right stance. An attitude of a man who is imposing himself and showing that men are not to be trifled with”, said the Brazilian, in an interview on the website of the “Combate” channel.
Wanderlei also blamed the editing of the program for the “villain” image he may have assumed throughout the reality show. “Suddenly the guy’s marketing sense is better than mine. He even managed to donate a football from a game we played at the house and that's something for costumes, for foreigners to see. Of course, it is a welcome action, as anything that helps us must be welcomed. But these are palliative actions, which are not as effective. The show didn't show much, it was kind of edited and a lot of things ended up being distorted. But that's okay, it was the price we paid to appear on the program. We are not in charge of the editing and, often, the public does not know that they are being manipulated. This manipulation can be discreet, of things placed in the middle of programming. You put a smile here, a swear word there, it depends on the placement. Now we have to move the ball forward and take advantage of the audience numbers, which were very good. We managed to promote MMA more in Brazil, and that is a very positive point,” he said.
Furthermore, the Brazilian was not worried about the negative repercussions of the fight with Sonnen and revealed that his approval among the public remains positive. “As they say, it’s much easier to be stone than glass, right? So it was good for me to feel the audience's reaction that way. We always have to see the good side of things. I think our people saw the extremes outside of the action. You cannot generalize about the whole because of some messages from Facebook e Twitter. Due to the type of action, many people see a comment and jump right in and start criticizing it because they want to be approved. Then the person says one thing and, suddenly, they may change their opinion. Suddenly she even discusses whether she was right or not. I think the people who are showing support for me are much larger than the people who were against it. Many people hadn't yet seen what Sonnen had said. Opinion comes and goes, right? And I feel like the people are with me,” she concluded.
The controversy between Wanderlei Silva e Chael Sonnen comes to an end on July 5th, when the pair finally meet inside the Octagon. The TUF Brasil 3 coaches' duel takes place at UFC 175, which takes place at Mandalay Bay, in Las Vegas. On the same night, the Brazilian Lyoto Machida challenge the champion Chris Weidman for the middleweight title. For Wanderlei, the date is the limit for the end of the “soap opera” between him and Sonnen. “The thing between me and Sonnen will be resolved on July 5th. This rivalry is looking like a Mexican soap opera, but on July 5th we will, perhaps, put an end to it”, he said.
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