@ jafotinatos

BINGO!!

Fans like to identify with fighters. When a fighter doesn’t speak their language, there is a disconnect.

And to your point: I’d venture to guess that Anderson and the UFC care if it is in fact part of the reason he sells fewer PPVs (that means less money in their pockets – which is far from absurd).

Brock was able to go on national television and do tons of interviews, interviewers and audiences without having to go through a translator who completely eliminates all the charm and personality that Silva puts in his statements. And I don’t really mean to bully Soares, but he A) doesn’t work in real-time, and B) doesn’t emote* much. Those are key things for a translator to do in order to bring a public speaker (which Silva needs to be, just like Brock and Randy) across the language barrier.

Interviewers and reporters report not only on what is said, but the more complex aspects of human interaction, at least on a subconscious level. This simply isn’t fully possible through an interpreter.

And when you’re talking to the public you need to connect with them emotionally. It seems to me like people either need to feel like they’re with you or against you. If they can’t hear your inflection because of a language barrier, they can’t feel you and they won’t care either way. The only person who can remove that barrier is Silva. Even hiring a better translator won’t do the same thing.

Personally, I would love him just getting a professional translator who does real time translations, but I’m not the majority. I actually like Machida :)

Absolutely, but I do believe that guys like Cote hurt his popularity. If Anderson had the ability to fight bigger names that aren’t huge draws, like Hughes for example, I think it would do 400-450 buys, much more respectable.