Over the past two years, Chael Sonnen's near-constant stream of invective at Anderson Silva has enabled him to get under the skin of everyone even remotely connected to the UFC Middleweight Champion, from his manager, Ed Soares, to his jiu-jitsu coaches, the Nogueira brothers, to thousands of rank-and-file Brazilians whom Soares felt the need to caution against taking matters into their own hands when it looked as if Sonnen and Silva would stage their rematch in Brazil at UFC 147.
Everyone, it seems, except for Anderson Silva.
That finally changed on Monday during the UFC 148 media conference call (listen below), when "the Spider" went on the offensive in the war of words with his American foe, threatening to "beat Chael like he's never been beaten before," retire him from the UFC, and break all four of his limbs. According to some Brazilian reporters, Soares' translations from Portuguese actually toned down the vitriol, which gives some idea of just how angry the champion really is at the "Gangster From America."
The question now, though, is what this will mean for the actual fight between Silva and Sonnen, which goes down on Saturday, July 7. How, exactly, will an angry Anderson Silva fight against Chael Sonnen?
In a typical Anderson Silva fight, the champion calmly uses his movement around the Octagon to set up his strikes, picking his spots to soften up his opponent and gauge reactions before going in for the kill (or not, in the case of his fights against Demian Maia and Thales Leites). The sense of calm that Silva brings to his fights - shared by the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, Jon Jones - is often one of his greatest assets (see his UFC 134 battle with Yushin Okami below for an example).
On Monday, however, Silva didn't talk like a man who's going to wait patiently and set up his shots. He spoke with the fury of a man who's going to charge Sonnen from the opening bell and make him pay for two years' worth of trash talk. There's a difference, of course, between talking about a fight and getting into the cage and doing, but given that Silva sounded different on Monday than we've ever heard him, it's worth asking if he'll look different in the Octagon as well.
Against Sonnen, a different Silva may well be an improvement. As brilliant and memorable as the champion's victory was at UFC 117 two years ago, the brilliance stemmed from the fact that Silva's typical methods of operation didn't serve him well against Sonnen's wrestling-based attack. Silva was on the verge of losing the fight before he seized his challenger in a triangle choke/armbar combination in the waning minutes of the fifth and final round. For Silva, a change of strategy may be exactly what he needs to achieve a more convincing victory.
On the other hand, the calm Silva we're used to seeing in the Octagon makes few, if any, mistakes. It's worth wondering if a more aggressive Silva would open himself up more to counterattacks, and play right into Sonnen's hands.
Even before Monday's conference call, Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen was the most anticipated fight of the summer. With the Spider on the warpath, however, the anticipation surrounding the UFC 148 fight card has reached a whole new level.
