Chael Sonnen happy to hear the 'real' Anderson Silva, says the 'dirtbag' can have his teeth at UFC 148

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva made headlines in the mixed martial arts (MMA) community, when he went off, during a media call to promote UFC 148, which takes place LIVE from Las Vegas, Nevada, on July 7, 2012.

During the teleconference, "The Spider" had many non-complimentary things to say about his opponent, Chael Sonnen, namely stating that he plans on breaking Sonnen's arms, legs and teeth.

Surprisingly, Sonnen did little to engage the champion or to respond to the insults. But it was only a matter of time until "The American Gangster" got his own verbal jabs in.

During an phone interview with FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight," Sonnen spoke about Silva's recent angry barbs. The veteran smack talker is apparently not impressed:

"Well it was nice to see the real Anderson Silva come through. Ya know, the guy's a dirtbag, like I've told you for years. He made a lot of statements like, he's gonna break my teeth, he's gonna break my jaw and beak my skull. Ya know, I've fought 49 men. It's not as if I've never been to the orthodontist before, or my jaw reset or my scalp stapled shut in the ER. There's a couple things he didn't say he was gonna do, starting with beating me, starting with breaking my spirit and leaving with the victory, cuz he's not. Go ahead. Take the the teeth, take the jaw, take the staples in the head, whatever other crap he's gonna do. We're in the a fistfight in a steel cage on a Saturday night, anyway. I kind of expect it. I think he was one off from saying, 'I'm gonna give you a knuckle sandwich.' I'm kinda sitting there thinking, 'Well, duh. We're in the middle of a cage fight, dummy!'"

After Silva's uncharacteristic outburst, many in the media posed the question, "Has Chael Sonnen finally gotten into Anderson Silva's head?"

According to Sonnen, that's the furthest thing from his mind. He believes Silva has exposed himself for who he really is. Chael just wants to get back into the cage and pick up where they left off:

"I don't care about being in his head. There was no gamesmanship here. It was very nice to finally see the real Anderson Silva come on through. He must have thought I'm Vitor Belfort. He wants to put on a mask and look down at me and have me wilt. That's not gonna happen, gentlemen. I'm a gangster from West Lynn, Oregon, and I've been picking a fight for years. He thinks I'm gonna be upset because I've found what I was looking for? There's a venue where we can figure this out on 7-7 at 7p.m., 10 in the east and only on pay-per-view, I will be in that Octagon. If he wants to meet me like a man, fine, but if he doesn't, I'm gonna spear-double, run him into the cage and put him on his ass and run my fist into his head for 25 minutes or until he gives up."

One shot Sonnen did take, during the UFC 148 conference call, had to do with Silva's boxing skills. Specifically, Sonnen called his skills: "amateur."

He wasn't backing off of his original accusation:

"You know, on day one of boxing class, you learn to keep your hands up and your chin down. He goes out there with his chin up and his hands down. That's amateur, at best. The last thing you wanna do is insult the guy you're about to fight. You really wanna build him up. What good does it do me to stomp a guy who sucks? It's just very hard to hide the fact that he sucks."

It's more of the same for these two. The only difference is that Sonnen finally has verbal sparring partner, this go-round.

Either way, he will have a literal sparring opponent at UFC 148, and there is very little doubt that the tension will lead to another violent confrontation.

For all things pertaining to UFC 148, including the full fight line up and card rumors click here.