Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira spoke very highly of his training partner Anderson Silva who is days away from clashing with Chael Sonnen for the middleweight title. Nogueira is confident in the ‘Spider’, stating that Silva “has been throwing amazing kicks and punches, has an amazing ground game and effective takedown defense.” Whether or not this is true, Silva must make sure he’s done his homework this time around. We all remember how Sonnen displayed superb wrestling skills which produced heavy ground and pound against the champion for 4 1/2 rounds back at UFC 117. Sonnen has proven how lethal wrestling can be along with some heavy hammer fists, but will he do the same in their rematch? Nogueira doesn’t think so, in fact he wants to grab one of Sonnen’s tooth after the fight.
Nogueira is not very pleased with the way Sonnen has carried himself in the UFC. He believes that Sonnen has been disrespectful not only to Silva but to Silva’s wife, the country of Brazil and to the sport of mixed martial arts.
From ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira (props to tatame.com):
“I wanna grab one of Sonnen’s tooth (laughs)…The guy’s disrespectful. The way he advertises himself is a wrong way of advertising, it’s disrespectful. He does those warm fights. He’s a tough fighter, a super athlete, but his kind of fight doesn’t sell, doesn’t convince, he’s not a dangerous striker nor a submitter. Where does he gets his popularity from? Talking…He’s a guy who says bad things about countries, the athlete, Anderson’s wife, the way he dresses… He gets into things that doesn’t matter…If he said he was going to beat Anderson and explained how I guess it was ok, but he gets into personal stuff and that’s a mistake. Anderson did good when responding to him. I’ve never seen Anderson like that. He’s throwing amazing kicks and punches, he’s got an amazing ground game and he has effective takedown defense. I watched his last couple of training sessions and he’s prepared. “
