Jim Rome: The rematch between Anderson Silva and my old pal Chael Sonnen. UFC 148 in July. I know Sonnen really wants Silva, does Silva want Sonnen?
Dana White: Oh yeah he does. The problem was that he wanted him in Brazil. He wanted that fight in Brazil really bad, so yesterday (April 24) I had a press conference to announce the fight, and the way everything went down I literally had to fly down yesterday morning and get Anderson Silva in a room and, you know, get him to take this fight in Las Vegas instead of in Rio.
Jim Rome: And what did he say to that? Not that he had a choice, but what was his response?
Dana White: He was pissed, he wasn’t happy about it, he really – he said, you know, ‘This guy has disrespected me, my country, my people. I want to give him a beating in Brazil’ is what he said to me.
Jim Rome: Is he under his skin and in his head?
Dana White: Oh yeah, oh yeah. He hates Chael Sonnen. If you didn’t see the press conference yesterday in Brazil, I’ll tell you what man, this kid has either got the biggest balls on earth or is the craziest guy I’ve ever met. We’re in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. I’ve got a bunch of security for this guy to get him into the country. If you heard the stuff that he said sitting there in Brazil. I’ve never been at a press conference where I’m looking out into the crowd and every time Chael Sonnen says something, I mean, people aren’t laughing, people aren’t – everybody was looking at Chael like they wanted to kill him down there. You want to talk about a guy the entire country hates this guy and wants to see him get beat.
Jim Rome: Yeah, I mean, it’s both right? He’s got the brassest set ever and he’s the craziest guy ever, I mean it’s all of the above, right?
Dana White: Yeah, he really is. He said, we went down there yesterday and he’s sitting there and he says, ‘Yeah well you know, me and my friends back in America we sit around and we talk about technology and and medicine and everything else and all the great things. And then I see Anderson Silva and his friends down here playing in the mud’.