Chael Sonnen is a MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter from the USA. His biggest nemesis is current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva. They have met once in the Octagon, in a title match in August 2007, in which Sonnen, after having pounded Silva for four rounds, lost due to a spectacular triangle choke applied by the Brazilian.
Silva is an outspoken Corinthians supporter which recently landed him a sponsorship contract with the club. Sonnen, who is a major league trash talker, has been spicing up the rematch that should take place early next year by claiming to be a Palmeiras supporter. This is of course nothing but a provocative stunt, but Sonnen is good at it: the other day, he even announced on twitter that he was going to wear a Palmeiras jersey on fight day and rounded off the tirade with a “chupa Corinthians” (literarily “suck on this”).
Anything Palmeiras would like to know your opinion on what stance Palmeiras should adopt in regard to fighter Chael Sonnen. Should he be offered a sponsorship deal? After all, wouldn’t it be crazy to lose out on an opportunity to strengthen the Palmeiras brand internationally and in the World’s fastest growing sport: MMA? If that’s your position, the first option is your choice in the poll below.
Another approach would be sending Sonnen a jersey, a DVD, even wishing him god luck, but not making much fuzz about i. A little bit of publicity is always good. But just a little bit (this was actually the stance taken by the Palmeiras administration).
Palmeiras could let Sonnen do his thing, but leave it at that. After all, he’s no palmeirense and Palmeiras have no business in MMA, at least not for the time being. If this is your opinion, the third poll option suits you well.
Some of you might think Sonnen shouldn’t talk about Palmeiras in the first place, much less wear the jersey. Who is he to represent Palmeiras? And what if he loses the fight, wouldn’t that make us look bad?
Finally, and on the other side of the scale, we find the last poll option: sending Sonnen a clear message in order to make him and anybody else understand that Palmeiras is to serve nobody’s personal interests.
Please vote!
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ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 
Another big mouth on Palmeiras rosters… that’s all we do not need by now.
Though call. I personally find this Anderson Silva / Corinthians thing very annoying. Should Palmeiras stoop to this annoyingly low level and play this game or take the moral high ground and lose some possible marketing? By essentially encouraging a Palmeiras v Corinthians fight in UFC, this would surely encourage more off field violence between both sets of fans. Probably not a good idea.
Brian, I really like your angle on this: haven’t thought about the possible effects on supporters in terms of violence. You make a good point, although I’m not sure it would in fact encourage or escalate violent behaviour. This is one thing to be on the lookout for, regardless of how much visibility Palmeiras (or any other football team for that matter) is exposed to in a MMA setting. Might be a topic for further studies.
I agree with you Kristian. I think that Palmeiras it’s already in contact with Chael… I don’t believe that advertisement is negative to the brand. Any efforts envolving the MMA to turn Palmeiras in a worldwide brand, in my opinion, it’s mandatory. Besides, the off field violence it’s no longer associated with regular supporters, any try to extinguish with is related with “the brazilians hooligans” (organized supporters). I also believe that people no longer associate the MMA to violence. AVANTI PALESTRA!
It gets better by the day… Now there’s a video with Sonnen wearing his customised Palmeiras jersey, claiming that he’ll “winn the World Title for Palmeiras” and let Marcos use the Champion’s belt. He’s quite a character, this Sonnen… Check out the clip! -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYY0z3RTkXo