UFC 136 – Brian Stann and Chael Sonnen keep it respectful ahead of their showdown next weekend in Houston, Texas
UFC middleweight contenders, Brian Stann and Chael Sonnen have tonight kept it respectful ahead of their UFC 136 main card clash next weekend in Houston, Texas, with the former American Marine revealing he knew the often outspoken 185 pounder would refrain from his trash talking ways.
Speaking to MMABay during tonight’s media conference call, Stann said:
“I told everybody from the start I didn’t think (the trash talk) was going to happen. I said this a couple times. I believe Chael is very genuine when he says if he has a problem with somebody, he’ll speak it. If he doesn’t have a problem with somebody, he won’t. You saw his fights against Nate Marquardt, Dan Miller and Yushin Okami, he didn’t have anything to say about those guys. He spoke about the fight. So it wasn’t surprising to me at all that didn’t happen. And I wouldn’t have taken it personally, anyway. I really think that our skill sets and the way that we fight has generated all the hype it needs.”
Sonnen was also on the call and gave his thoughts on the potential number one contenders shootout.
“Nobody wants to fight Brian, but somebody’s got to. Our paths have to cross. We’re just in the same weight class, it’s not that big of a pool and he keeps whipping everybody. If he quit beating everybody, I wouldn’t have to fight him. But he decided to go out and become one of the top guys. I’ve done my part and put my time in and I’m up there too, so our paths have to cross.”
“I don’t know that I ever look forward to (fighting). I hear some guys say they’re excited (to fight), and I always get jealous of those guys. I’ve never been excited to have to go fight another man. I’m not excited now. I’m happy to be part of it – I got put in timeout for a while, and I’m glad that’s all over and behind me. But I go with a matter-of-fact approach – I’m not excited for the match. It’s a bunch of emotions that get combined into one, and excitement isn’t one of them.”
Stann has racked up a number of impressive stoppage wins since dropping down to the middleweight division, scoring TKO wins over both Chris Leben and Jorge Santiago this year alone. Sonnen’s next fight will be his first since he was suspended for taking banned substances prior to his UFC 117 bout with middleweight champion, Anderson Silva. Prior to that he had defeated the likes of Yushin Okami and Nate Marquardt.
By Michael Pepper. (Follow me on Twitter)
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