Derek Brunson is preparing to headline the upcoming UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo card against former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida.
Brunson fought former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva at UFC 208 and now he is accusing the former champion of greasing during their bout.
“Every time I grabbed him he was just slipping out of everything, and his takedown defense was really good that night,” Brunson told MMA Latest News. “I was definitely curious to know why he was very slippery, which I definitely think he had some kind of substance on his body. He knows I’m a wrestler, obviously. He’s an old, savvy veteran, so he was definitely trying to play all the rules and be very strategic, and make it harder for a wrestler to grab him. When I grab guys in the clinch, it’s very tough for them to get away and I’m pretty good with my Greco takedown. He was pretty much pulling through my clinch when I had a tight grip on him, and if you have some kind of substance on your body it’s easy to pull them.”
Silva has yet to respond to these accusations from Brunson and no other opponents have ever accused him of greasing before.
Machida and Silva are longtime friends, but Brunson isn’t concerned if Machida tries the same thing as Silva was accused of doing.
“I’m not too worried, but like I said, I put it out there because I know they’re friends and I know, obviously, that’s kind of what the guys do when they know they’re fighting a wrestler,” Brunson said. “They want to lube their body up really good to make it hard to grab hold; Anderson did a great job defending my takedowns. It’s because he was all greased up, so he was able to stop a lot of them.”
UFC Fight Night Sao Paulo takes place on Saturday, October 28 from the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil with Lyoto Machida and Derek Brunson headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, which airs live on Fox Sports 1.
