Chael Sonnen: Talking His Way Into Title Picture?

(Sonnen is a man of many hats: Real-estate, Politics, Fighting, and trash talking)

If you caught the news or saw the countdown special for UFC 109 you already know that Sonnen has recently been campaigning to become a State Representative in Oregon. The Republican Party has blessed us with many a gem over the years: Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, George W. Bush, etc. Add to that list of true orators and all around good people Chael Sonnen. Hopefully his campaign is more successful than that of his teammate Matt Lindland's political aspirations. During the conference call for UFC 109 today, Dana White announced that the winner of the Nate Marquardt/Chael Sonnen fight will be next in line for a Middleweight title shot against the winner of Silva/Belfort. It is widely believed that Nate "The Great" is going to run straight through Sonnen this weekend, and I tend to agree with that sentiment. However, there is that off chance that Chael lays on top of Nate for three rounds to get the W, and one can only imagine the rhetoric that will be flowing through the mouth of the outspoken Sonnen if that happens. On his media blitz leading up to the fight this weekend Chael has dropped some of his best lines about everyone except for his opponent Nate Marqurdt. Sonnen recently had this to say about the Middleweight kingpin:

"If he wants to leave the division, leave the sport, who cares. Beat it, nobody tunes in to watch him anyways, and his little fake 'I don't speak English.

"You want me to let you in on a secret, Anderson Silva speaks perfect English. He just has such a low amount of respect for you and all the rest of the media that he pretends he doesn't. I've had conversations with Anderson Silva in perfect English, and on top of that he's so boring to listen to that he and his rocket scientist manager, Ed Soares, who is also about as exciting as watching grass grow, have decided that Ed is better on the mic than Anderson, so just let Ed do the talking."

"It's quite ironic that all the media comes on and talks about how great this guy is for reasons that are completely un-understandable to me. How great Anderson Silva is, and all of us fighters are in the back going, 'jeez, they're out there massaging his ego, Anderson hates them so much, he pretends he can't understand them. That guy's no more the top fighter out there than Bigfoot is roaming the woods. That is an absolute myth, and all these guys can buy into it, but there's a young man out in Portland, Ore., that is not signing up on that bandwagon. If Anderson ever signed to fight me, which is highly unlikely, he'll be getting a verbal beating like you've never seen. And his language barrier won't be the point of interest."

He also offers his thoughts on Mark Coleman calling the UFC Hall of Famer "A Bum":

"Even though Mark Coleman is a bum, he wins fights," Sonnen said. "Who's Mark Coleman's coach? Who is Mark Coleman's training partner? What is the name of the gym that he trains at? And don't tell me the Hammer House. I want to know an actual building, an actual piece of real estate with a sign on it. Where does he train? Everybody has a coach. Tiger Woods has a coach. Michael Jordan had a coach. Mayweather has a coach. Mark Coleman does not have a coach. Everybody has a team. Everybody has a team backing them. Tiger Woods has a team. Kobe has a team. All the greats have a team of any sport. He doesn't have a team! He's his own coach, he's his own team. He doesn't even have a gym he belongs to. That's just silly. How you could be in this for this long and be a one man show. On one hand (it) is remarkable. On one hand, maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Maybe I need to compliment him a little bit, but it's just silly. That's not what a dedicated guy does."

Has Sonnen talked his way into a number one contender bout, or does he deserve the status if he beats "The Great"? Either way it is shaping up to be a good night of fights on Saturday and Chael is taking his role as the heel seriously. Stay classy Chael and we look forward to the fight on Saturday!