Chael Sonnen isn’t buying into Fedor Emelianenko’s persona.
Sonnen and Emelianenko are set to collide in the semi-finals of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix. Sonnen earned his spot when he defeated Quinton “Rampage” Jackson via unanimous decision. It only took Emelianenko 48 seconds to punch his ticket when he knocked out Frank Mir.
It didn’t take long for Sonnen to stir the pot. He hopped inside the cage and cut a WWE-style promo on “The Last Emperor.” In the past, Sonnen has claimed Emelianenko’s fights were fixed in Pride FC.
During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com‘s “The MMA Hour,” Sonnen said that Emelianenko’s calm demeanor is an act:
“I don’t know about the whole respect thing. He seems like a perfectly nice guy, I don’t think I would want to take anything from him, but it’s a gimmick, right? All the guys are working a gimmick. He found his gimmick. He found a little something with the respect and the humbleness and looking like Dumpy Dwarf getting interviewed by his translator Snow White there. That’s good for some people. It doesn’t do a damn thing for me. I’m not impressed by it, I don’t fall for it. At the end of the day, behind that little frumpy look on his face and the little doughy bald head is a dirty, rotten cage fighter just like me.”
On the other side of the bracket, Ryan Bader and Matt Mitrione will do battle. Bader even topped Emelianenko’s performance, knocking out Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in just 15 seconds. Meanwhile, Mitrione advanced with his majority decision victory over Roy Nelson back in February.
Stick with MMANews.com for continued coverage of the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix. We’ll keep you up to speed on the dates and locations of each semi-final bout when those details become available.
Do you think the persona of Fedor Emelianenko is genuine?
