After releasing yet another video blasting the UFC, this time for threatening to sue him if he appeared at a Bellator media event, Wanderlei Silva has prompted his former rival — Chael Sonnen — to give him a piece of his mind.
During a conversation with the folks at BloodyElbow.com, Sonnen spoke about Silva’s decision to post these video rants against the UFC over the past few months.
“I don’t know who is advising Wanderlei and I don’t know who his management team is, if they have a PR arm, but I really disagree with the way he has gone about things,” said Sonnen.
“My suspicion is that he’s not getting advice from anywhere,” continued Sonnen. “He seems to be making all these moves on his own. I really wish he would just slow down. He’s at a weird point in his life; when your career starts coming to an end, and that’s what you’re used to doing every day, it’s hard to deal with.”
Sonnen continued, “You get used to a certain lifestyle; the working out every day, the interviews and appearances…everybody goes through it. As athletes, we go through these life altering changes while we’re still young. Athletes don’t retire at 65. We have to retire much earlier, so I think what we’re all seeing is Wanderlei going through some of these changes that he’s struggling with.”
“He’s still trying to figure out how to navigate them. I don’t know who’s managing him, but the things he’s doing are not things I would advise him to do,” said Sonnen. “He got credit for his hard work. Do you know how hard that is to achieve? People build buildings all the time, beautiful ones, but nobody knows who made them. That’s just what life is. You go out, you contribute and you come home at the end of the day.”
Sonnen concluded, “This is a really unique thing where you get those pats on the back. I just want to shake him and say, ‘You’ve got to step back and see the bigger picture here.’ He didn’t have to do this. He got to do this. I didn’t have to fight Anderson Silva. I got to fight him. It’s all about building memories and having something to look back on.”
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