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21/04/09 - Exclusive: Wanderlei on Anderson: "Disrespect again... I will beat him"
Wanderlei Silva has blasted his former team mate Anderson Silva for his performance against Thales Leites in the headline bout of UFC 97.
Anderson went five rounds with Leites but spent the last half of the fight toying with him after completely nullifying any threat he posed.
Wanderlei was unequivocal in his condemnation of Anderson's conduct when speaking with Fighters Only yesterday.
"Disrespect again," he snapped. "Disrespect to the public and so bad for the UFC, because everybody is waiting to see a great show.
"If you are going to fight in the main event you have a lot of responsibility because the fans pay to see [the fights] and this [performance] is bad for the sport. Everybody needs to have serious conduct in the fights, respect the fight."
Anderson recently roused Wanderlei's anger by commenting negatively on the former PRIDE FC champion's move to middleweight, calling it "pretentious".
The two had a feud after Anderson left Chute Boxe but Wanderlei thought that had been patched up. When he heard Anderson had said he would "get himself hurt" at middleweight, he immediately stated a desire to fight the middleweight champion.
"With me he does not want to play," Wanderlei growled, reflecting on the way Anderson had toyed with Leites and Patrick Cote.
"He does not want to put down his hands because if he puts down his hands, I will beat him."
John Joe O'Regan and Gary Alexander
john.fightersonly@gmail.com
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