Wanderlei Silva is set to fight Chael Sonnen at UFC 175 on July 5, 2014, and asked for the support of his countrymen in Brazil. The fight was supposed to happen in Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 31, 2014 but has been transferred to Las Vegas, Nevada. Silva posted a 2011 interview of Sonnen on Instagram wherein the American gave racist comments, particularly addressed to Brazilians. Silva then described Sonnen as a "racist".
"This guy is a racist and he doesn't deserve our respect. I wouldn't be mad (at him) if I had no reasons to be. This is just one of the things he said about us." Silva posted on Instagram, according to a report by MMA Fighting.
The screenshot from the 2011 video captioned Sonnen saying, "If they sell 100,000 tickets I hope they put them in a nice ball, turn them sideways and shove them straight up their a**. That's what they can do with the Brazilian crowd." The interview was before Sonnen's fight against Anderson Silva, and was supposed to promote and increase the intensity of their rematch.
Both Silva and Sonnen appeared on the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter Brazil 3". From the start of the show, Silva asked Sonnen to apologize for being racist about Brazilians. Sonnen, an American, refused to heed to such demands. In one episode of the show, Andre Dida, Silva's assistant, punched Sonnen, leading to the infamous brawl between the two fighters, where Silva and his team received numerous praises from Brazilians around the world.
Silva continued to ask for Brazilian support by saying, "Now, if you want to cheer for him be my guest, you deserve my respect. I don't agree with him and I think we should be united this time. We're stronger together," writes Bleacher Report.
According to Wrestling, Inc. Sonnen seemed unaffected by the sympathy that Silva was looking for from the Brazilian people. He tweeted, "(Silva) would like to get his tweet out. He has no followers, so let's help him."
Let's check out the video here.
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