Chael Sonnen Says Anthony Pettis Had His Back in Wanderlei Silva Confrontation

The video of a confrontation between Chael Sonnen and Wanderlei Silva made the rounds on the MMA media circuit last week.

The scuffle between the former two-divisional title contender and the Pride legend went down during the expo portion of the Mr. Olympia contest in Las Vegas and became the most recent incident in a long-standing bitter feud between the two men.

Following the dust-up, "The Axe Murderer" posted a video online where he pushed the card further by showing his own footage of the altercation. Silva's video shows the Brazilian knockout artist approaching Sonnen with a camera crew intact as he launched threats in the Oregon native's direction.

Apparently there was another interesting element the video didn't show, and Sonnen shed light on that matter during Wednesday night's airing of UFC Tonight on Fox Sports 1. The "Gangster from West Linn" retold how the events unfolded, but while Silva had several others with him, Sonnen revealed he wasn't alone in the scuffle as recently crowned lightweight champion Anthony Pettis saw the action going down and rushed over to get his back in the fray.

"

[Wanderlei] shows up with three guys and a camera. I’ve dealt with this guy before. This isn’t the first time. I tell myself he’s traveling around with his camera and having some fun. He puts those things on the Internet and it can be a laugh. What I don’t know has happened is Anthony Pettis sees this whole thing and comes over to back me. So I get done with Wanderlei, these guys shoo away, and I turn about a quarter inch and here’s Anthony Pettis and he’s ready to fight. They got four guys and Pettis. Now, Pettis doesn’t mind two against four anymore than I minded the four against one.

You can say what you want about Pettis being a handsome, nice champion, but at the end of the day, he’s a street kid from Milwaukee. Wanderlei…be very careful about doing these things.

"

While the Sonnen/Silva rivalry continues to rage on, there will be no conclusion to their feud in the foreseeable future. Despite the former title challenger consistently pushing the UFC to make the bout happen and issuing numerous public challenges to the former Pride champion, the promotion has been unable to put the fight together.

Instead, "Chael P." will square off with former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans later this year at UFC 168 in Las Vegas.

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.