In case you hadn't heard, film star Steven Seagal is back in the news ahead of Saturday night's UFC 148 fight card in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
With Anderson Silva preparing to defend his UFC Middleweight Championship against Chael Sonnen in a rematch of their UFC 117 classic, Seagal - who's been a regular presence around Black House fighters like Silva and Lyoto Machida in recent months - was in attendance at Thursday's UFC 148 open workouts, and gave an interview to Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com in which he claimed to have taught Silva some new techniques.
According to Seagal, the stand-up techniques in question consist of "stuff that we thought was maybe illegal that's not illegal, and stuff like that. It turns out to not be illegal."
Seagal also claimed credit for the more intense demeanor Silva displayed on last week's media conference call and at Tuesday's press conference, saying that an angry Silva is what's called for in the fight with Sonnen, who came within two minutes of dethroning the UFC's longest-reigning champion two years ago in Oakland.
"That's exactly what I've been telling him," Seagal said. "I said, 'You're too nice in the past. In this fight, we're not going to be nice. We're gonna be really, really, really deep.'"
Whether Seagal's instruction really means anything to Silva is questionable, and it's been written before in this space that Seagal's continued presence around Silva and Machida does no favors to the UFC in terms of public perception, given Seagal's status as a pop culture punchline (which has no bearing at all on his skills as a martial artist). However, given Silva's opponent, the presence of Mr. Seagal may be warranted after all.
There are two opponents that Silva has had to deal with during the buildup to this fight. One is Chael Sonnen, the All-American wrestler from the University of Oregon who gave Silva a fight like he'd never had before two years ago at UFC 117, and has the skills necessary to dethrone the champion for good on Saturday night in Las Vegas. The other is "Chael P. Sonnen," the living, breathing cartoon character who rails at radio and TV hosts about technical inaccuracies in their interview questions and tries to provoke Silva with insults about his skills, coaches, and manager, not to mention borderline racist statements that could have been culled from the 1980s repertoire of WWE commentator Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.
Silva has the skills to deal with the man he'll face in the cage on Saturday night. When it comes to the other guy, well, Seagal is a perfect fit. Seagal can easily match crazy with Sonnen's loud alter-ego, helping to build the carnival atmosphere that surrounds UFC 148. Then, when the time comes, Silva - with or without any special techniques from his friend the movie star - can take care of business.
