Chael
Sonnen hasn’t given
Anderson
Silva too many compliments.
When the Brazilian was knocked out by
Chris
Weidman, though, Sonnen was impressed by the way he handled his
first UFC defeat.
“If you lose a title, you need to pass the torch,” Sonnen told the
Sherdog Radio Network’s “Rewind” show. “
Chris
Weidman only gets three minutes on that microphone. He gets
three minutes in that ring, and Anderson, as hard as it was, got
out of his way. As hard as it was, he said, ‘That’s the champion.
I’m no longer champion,’ and he left it at that. He didn’t come in
with any crap about, ‘Oh, he was better tonight,’ or ‘I was hurt,’
or ‘I was sick.’ He was a real man about it, and you can take all
that back 10 minutes later at the press conference. You can take it
all back the next morning when you think about it, but at that
time, you have to give that guy his moment. He worked his whole
life for those three minutes to stand there and get that cheer. I
was surprised, but I was very impressed that Anderson followed that
code.”
Silva and Weidman meet again Dec. 28 at UFC 168 in Las Vegas.
Sonnen has said he plans to apply to referee the bout, but he told
“Rewind” that he doesn’t expect to be in the Octagon for the
middleweight title fight.
“I don’t think they’re going to put me in, but it’s an
application,” Sonnen said. “It’s 25 bucks. I’ve done a lot of
officiating.”
Listen to the
full interview (beginning at 45:33).
