Anderson Silva on Chael Sonnen: 'He may talk too much, but he's a good hard-working guy'

Despite all of the well-documented bad blood between former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Middleweight champion Anderson Silva and bitter rival Chael Sonnen, "The Spider" doesn't have any ill will toward "American Gangster."

Speaking to Whoa! TV, Silva remarked that even though Sonnen may have a tendency to talk too much, he is a hard-working company man who is always putting in work for UFC President Dana White and the Zuffa-owned mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion.

When asked to share his current feelings about his former arch-nemesis, the former dominant Middleweight champion had this to say:

"Chael talk too much, but is a good guy. He's not bad, he's a good guy. Chael is (always) in the media for fight. Chael fight for the belt against me two times. Chael fight Jon Jones, Chael fought "Shogun," Chael fight now. Chael is working for Dana White all the time. Dana don't need to talk nothing because Chael is working all the time. It's normal. Chael talk."

No one can question the work ethic Sonnen possesses, nor his gift of gab.

After Dan Henderson (full details here) of his Light Heavyweight title fight against Jon Jones, which was scheduled to go down at UFC 151, Sonnen offered up his services to take on "Bones" on short notice to save the pay-per-view (PPV) event.

But, we all know how that turned out.

As proof of his "anytime, anywhere" attitude toward work, Sonnen already has two fights booked in advance -- perhaps the first fighter in UFC history to do so -- as he is set to co-main event fight UFC 167 against Rashad Evans followed by his scrap against Wanderlei Silva, which includes a stint as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF): 'Brazil 3' sometime in 2014.

If that wasn't enough, Sonnen is already trying to book his third fight in advance and also serves as co-host of "UFC Tonight" alongside Kenny Florian.

When does this guy rest?

Furthermore, Silva went on to confirm that the beef between he and Sonnen is indeed over, he just really had a big problem getting over the fact that the unabashed trash talker targeted his family during his verbal tirades.

He explains:

"Chael disrespect my country and my family and the UFC fans. The ladies watch UFC, the kids watch UFC. The guy talked about my wife. Why? If I talked bad about the people of the United States, I no come back to the United States because the people no like me. Come on, if you talk bad about United States, what the hell is going on? You don' respect. But, like I tell my students all the time. ‘You guys go for fight and you need to respect the country and your opponent because this is a new sport and it is very important.'"

In the end, though, that all appeared to just be water under the seemingly tenuous bridge.

Silva now turns his attention to a less bitter rival as he takes on current 185-pound champion Chris Weidman -- the man who knocked him out at UFC 162 earlier this year -- at UFC 168 on Dec 28, 2013, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As of today, "All American" has yet to hurl any insulting remarks toward Silva ... at least none that have been made public. And even if he did, it might not matter once the dust settles.