UFC 117 Conference Call: Sonnen Hype Machine Rolls, Silva Reserved

I was sequestered into action yesterday by Captain John Joe O'Regan of Fighters Only to cover the UFC 117 Conference Call, which turned out to be wonderfully unusual.

The polar opposite personalities between the two light-heavyweights quickly took over as the main attraction.  Anderson opened up with one very brief answer, and lent a simple "no" in response to the next three.  This lit the fuse for Sonnen to click on the megaphone and gladly compensate for Anderson's short and elusive comments by injecting a string of the memorable tirades that have been surrounding this fight since day one.

Here's a chunk of my article from Fighters Only.  Please see the link to the entire piece and partial audio of the conference call below.

Sonnen came out with guns blazing by confirming that he feels like he’s the only one promoting the fight. “Do I feel like it? Of course I am. I’m shocked people even ask him questions. “ Sonnen claimed Silva had only one sponsor and that his only fans were the media, and that “nobody is tuning into a pay per view or buying merchandise” because of Silva, and closed bluntly with, “I don’t even know why he’s here.” The crosshairs then turned back to Anderson on the topic of promoting the fight. “Everyone promotes fights differently,” Ed Soares translated for the Brazilian champion. “This is how Chael does it and that’s his choice. I’m going to go out and fight and not talk crap about people.”

Click here to read the full article at Fighters Only

UFC 117 Conference Call Audio from cagewriter.com via aroundtheoctagon.com.