Chael Sonnen: It's Hard To Deny That Anderson Silva Is The Best

It might be due to the fact that he was battling illness and is worn down from a grueling training camp, but Chael Sonnen was noticeably less acerbic when discussing UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva on today's UFC 136 conference call.

Sonnen was asked if he believed that his rival, UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, had finally cemented his status as the best middleweight in the world and Sonnen actually offered a mostly complimentary response to The Spider.

"It's getting harder and harder to deny that he should be shown that appreciation," Sonnen leveled. "He ducked Okami for years but he did finally get in there and he made it look easy. So, I think you've got to look at that. If you're asking if I would ever concede that Anderson's better than me? No. I would simply refer you to the tape. I think he and I's skills are vastly different. I think I could come down a lot and still be ahead of him. I also think he ducks and dodges opponents constantly - but listen, his wins and losses speak for themselves and the fact of the matter, whether I'd like to admit it or not, is he's done a better job than anybody, he's done a better job than me and he is the champion. That doesn't mean that I'm gonna quit poking my finger in his chest but at some point I think fairness needs to kick in too and I think you need to look at what he's done and tip your hat to him a little bit."

Sonnen will be facing Brian Stann next Saturday, October 8 on the main card of UFC 136: Edgar vs. Maynard 3 for a likely rematch against the champion.

Mark Wayne is the head writer for FightLine.com. He can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/_MarkWayne.