Anderson Silva Calls Chael Sonnen A Doping Loser… And He’s Right, Of Course

Anderson Silva is a controversial man, although he only rarely says controversial things. Most of his cynics focus on his in-fight antics, which at times have bordered and even crossed the line. In terms of his pre-fight and post-fight interviews, though, Silva remains mostly respectful… mostly. Recently, Anderson Silva gave his reaction to Yushin Okami, Silva’s next scheduled opponent, training with Chael Sonnen. Sonnen and Silva had an incredibly bitter rivalry, and in their fight, Silva would win by fifth-round submission after spending five rounds getting pounded on. And as one would expect, Silva’s words to Sonnen were far from pretty. Here are all the details.

Courtesy of MMA Weekly, the current UFC Middleweight Champion had this to say about Okami seeking Sonnen’s help for his upcoming shot at Silva’s long-held title: “You have to find the best person to train you, and I think he chose wrong… I will never line up with a loser, a loser in every sense… He did not win the fight (against me), (he) was caught doping, is being sued for various things, and is suspended from the UFC… Sonnen was not a hard opponent for me. I was hurt with cracked ribs and fought five rounds. If not, the fight would have been different.”

I can already tell by Silva’s words that many of his cynics will find even more reason to hate him for this interview. But I do have to ask the following question.

Even if Anderson Silva is kicking Chael Sonnen when he’s down, don’t you think he’s entitled to it?

This is Chael Sonnen we’re talking about. This is the man that couldn’t go a day without another long, winding rant filled with sound bites and so-bad-they’re-good jokes. Chael Sonnen was able to wholly shift fan perception of him thanks to his words alone. He went from just another sacrificial lamb for the UFC’s Middleweight King… to a super-star with a growing legion of fans that wanted nothing more than to see him pound a hole through Silva’s head, which is exactly what he promised to do.

Some of the things Sonnen said went way beyond professional, most fans just chose to overlook that because Sonnen was just so awesome, clever, and funny when saying it. This man not only insulted Anderson Silva, he insulted some of Silva’s closest friends. He insulted Anderson Silva’s entire camp, a band of brothers that features some of the best Brazilian MMA fighters in the world. No one was safe from Sonnen’s tirades.

And what happened, in the end? Silva beat Sonnen. He may have spent an overwhelming majority of the fight at Sonnen’s mercy, but he did beat Sonnen. Then Sonnen’s personal and professional life both collapsed under the weight of Sonnen’s own misdeeds.

In my eyes, that’s poetic justice. It’s about as poetic as it gets, really.

So, if anyone has the right to call Chael Sonnen a loser, it’s Anderson Silva. And you know what? Chael Sonnen is a loser. He literally lied, cheated, and stole. I’ve just spent so much time detesting the man that I’m finally tired of being angry at him. Part of me even has a little bit of sympathy for him: he’s so far down on his luck, he’s been kicked while he’s down so many times, that you’ve got to have at least a small, small fraction of an ounce of sympathy for him.

But if Anderson Silva wants to call Chael Sonnen on the mess he’s made of his life, he’s perfectly in the right to do so. Because while Sonnen is piecing his life back together after pleading guilty to federal money laundering and having his fighting license suspended, Anderson Silva remains the most-dominant UFC Champion of all time, with the most consecutive wins in UFC history.

And that, my friends, is poetic justice at its finest.