Israel Adesanya or Anderson Silva? Chael Sonnen disagrees with Daniel Cormier

Chael Sonnen couldn’t help but take aim at Daniel Cormier after he claimed Israel Adesanya cannot be compared to Anderson Silva.

Adesanya, 32, returns to the octagon this weekend for a high-stakes rematch with Robert Whittaker.

The New Zealander defends his title at UFC 271 against the man he defeated in 2019.

Having not lost a single fight at 185lbs in his entire career, some have argued the Nigerian-born Kiwi is the greatest of all-time in that division.

But Cormier, who beat the legendary Brazilian back in July 2016, is adamant ‘The Last Stylebender’ does not deserve such status.

The ex-UFC champion believes Adesanya still has plenty of ‘work to do’ before he catches up to Silva, and Sonnen has a good reason why.

He said on his YouTube channel: “What in the bleep is Daniel Cormier talking about? There is nothing on that, that is accurate.

“There is no way that Daniel believes it, except Daniel fought Anderson Silva, and would like to pad his own resume so he wants to have beaten the greatest of all time, is all I can think.

“Or, he just didn’t have enough time to think about the question – there is zero truth to it.

“Look, if we are at least down to Adesanya and Anderson we have done a good job as a community.

“Because those are the two. I will tell you this, they fought, and it was a good fight.

“Adesanya won, two rounds to one, everyone saw it the same way as the judges.

“Adesanya won one and three, Anderson won number two, it was a valiant effort by Anderson.

“It was closer than any of us thought it was going to be, it was a great fight.

“But that still answers the question, if you’re being fair.”

Sonnen, 44, also took umbrage at Cormier comparing Silva to boxing legend Muhammad Ali.

He added: “It’s