Chael Sonnen believes that the Joe Silva backlash may not be all that it appears.
Silva is a former UFC matchmaker, who was inducted in the UFC Hall of Fame class of 2017. He retired from his position one year earlier. While fans might remember Silva for booking some all-time classics, many fighters don’t exactly look back at the ex-matchmaker fondly.
Chael Sonnen Sticks Up For Joe Silva
Fighters such as Eddie Alvarez and Brendan Schaub have come forward with their stories of how Silva was as a person. Alvarez and Schaub both felt Silva was on a power trip and used harsh words to describe their performances. In worse cases, some fighters have claimed Silva had them sidelined for months for turning down a bout only to be booked against someone who far exceeded them in skill and experience.
Sonnen took to his YouTube channel to defend Silva (h/t MMAJunkie).
“He was really good at what he did, and Joe really deserves a lot of compliments for that,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Some of the stories from the guys that have been coming out are very mean, and they were very mean because somewhere along the way Joe had hurt their feelings, and this was like that payback of sorts. But I don’t know that if you listen to these guys’ stories, and they were largely telling them on social media, you will also probably miss there’s tongue in cheek in some of these stories. There was an appreciation for the attitude and the way in which Joe Silva did things.”
Sonnen went on to say his experiences with Silva were always positive. He also said he appreciated the difficult position Silva was in as he had to bring bad news to the fighters. Sonnen also said Silva was so busy that perhaps his interactions with fighters came off as dismissive or rude.
