Anderson Silva Explains Bet With Chael Sonnen Resulting in Tattoo

Even the undefeated, undisputed Chael Sonnen is man enough to shed tears at a powerful story.

On Thursday, Paramount+ released the documentary series of Ultimate Fighting Championship great Anderson Silva. The five-part series, currently out in Brazil and titled “Anderson ‘Spider’ Silva,” spans five episodes and chronicles much of Silva’s life. The show begins in his childhood and showcases his accolades in competition including winning and defending the UFC middleweight title.

To hype up the release of the docuseries, Paramount+ also posted a video of Silva and Sonnen getting together to watch it together. Sonnen famously posted on Tuesday a few photographs of a tattoo on his shoulder of former rival Silva, and the video took fans behind the scenes. As it turned out, this tattoo resulted from a bet between the two fighters.

“If [Sonnen] cried [while watching the series], he would have to tattoo my face on his arm,” Silva revealed. “If he didn’t, I would have to tattoo his face and ‘I Love Chael Sonnen Forever.’”

In the video, Silva welcomed Sonnen to his house to watch the biographical series about his life and showed the two placing the bet. During an especially emotional scene, an emotional Sonnen shed a tear while side-by-side with the man in which the show was about. This single tear was all that mattered. The video then cut to Sonnen in a tattoo parlor, but it was not exactly what “The Spider” expected.

Silva later spoke on the Flow Podcast at great length about the documentary, as well as touching on a recent victory for a countryman. During the podcast, Silva was asked about countryman Alex Pereira, who claimed the light heavyweight throne at UFC 295 on Saturday. “The Spider” was happy to compliment the new champion.

“‘Poatan’ is building his own story. This guy is a real badass,” the former champ remarked.

Silva headlined UFC 234 against at the time Pereira’s two-time foe Israel Adesanya. To prepare for Adesanya, Silva’s manager, Jorge Guimaraes sought out none other than Pereira.

“What is impressive about ‘Poatan’ is that you hit him and get hurt, [and] if you hit him in the wrong place, you get hurt. This guy is such a badass,” Silva repeated.