Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen: Spider Will Eat the People's Champ Alive

Confidence is everything.

Anderson Silva is scheduled to fight Chael Sonnen in UFC 148 on July 7, but he's already won. If the Spider isn't already in Sonnen's head, it'll only take one powerful blow to have the American Gangster on his heels after all of the pre-fight trash talking that has been going on.

Steve Marrocco of the USA Today reported that Silva is quite confident that he won’t only defeat Sonnen on Saturday, but that he’ll dismantle him. In fact, “confident” is a massive understatement.

Silva said in a conference call last week:

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"What I'm going to do inside the Octagon is something that's going to change the image of the sport, I'm sorry. I'm going to beat his (expletive) like he's never been beaten before. This is going to be violent and I am sorry. I'm going to make sure that every one of his teeth are broken, that his arms are broken and his legs are broken. He's not going to be able to walk out of the Octagon by himself. I can guarantee that. He will need a plastic surgeon afterward."

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He wasn’t finished, though. According to bjpenn.com, in the pre-fight press conference Silva reportedly whispered in Sonnen’s ear, “You’re going to die.”

I wouldn’t bet on any of Silva’s threats to actually come true, but expect him to still beat Sonnen down.

When the two competitors fought back in August of 2010, Silva forced a submission in the fifth round. Let's just say if Sonnen was ever going to defeat Silva, that was his chance.

According to Steven Marrocco of MMA Junkie, Silva defeated Sonnen despite a battling through a rib injury which was serious enough to provoke his doctor to advise him not to fight. Following the loss, Sonnen tested positive for extremely high testosterone levels as well as performance enhancing drugs and was suspended by the California State Athletic Commission, according to Sherdog.

Of course, Brett Okamoto of ESPN reported that Sonnen struggles with Hypogonadism and because of that, he'll actually be able to use testosterone in the days leading up to the rematch, as long as his testosterone-to-epitestosterone level stays under the Nevada State Athletic Commission limit.

Now, if Sonnen couldn’t beat Silva with an illegal amount of testosterone fueling him, then how in the world is he going to pull off a victory without its advantage?

Silva hasn’t lost a fight since 2004 (besides his illegal-kick disqualification against Yushin Okami in 2006). You’d be nuts to bet against him this weekend.

David Daniels is a featured columnist at Bleacher Report and a syndicated writer.

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