UFC Fight Night 36: Cristiano Marcello says Brazilians treat Chael Sonnen like a king

Saturday night will mark the UFC's 36^th Fight Night card, and the event is a pretty solid affair. Brazil will be home to several hometown favorites to cheer for, and veteran Lightweight, Cristiano Marcello will be on hand to help add to the excitement. He'll face off against Fellow TUF alum, Joe Proctor in what promises to be a great fight.

Bloody Elbow recently spoke to Marcello who discussed the ever growing hurdles for jiu jitsu oriented fighters when it comes to judging and gave his thoughts on Thiago Silva's recent run-in with the law. Here's what he had to say:

Jiu-jitsu and Judging

A good wrestler can just get on top and hold you down. He won't let you sweep or nothing. If the guy is really good at jiu-jitsu, you'll see him attacking from the bottom with sweeps, triangles, armbars. Sometimes I worry about it though, because I don't know if the referee knows about martial arts. It worries me that they won't see or understand the trouble we can give from the bottom.

Chael Sonnen vs. Wanderlei Silva

These two guys are gonna be happy to fight when they finally get into the Octagon. I'm excited to watch that fight, too. Chael sells his fights very good. I can honestly say that the people in Brazil treat him like a king. They love him. From everything I can see, the people really like him, even from the gyms.

Thiago Silva

It's a terrible situation. I know Thiago, and he's a great guy with me, but when you do something wrong, and it doesn't matter who it is, me, you or someone else, you have to see the consequences from your actions and pay for your mistakes. I don't have nothing to say about Thiago personally, but he do something wrong, and he has to pay for that.

Fight Night

I'm in shape and excited to fight in my own back yard. It's just an hour and a half from my place. Joe Proctor is a great athlete. He's a good friend and I know him well, but business is business. Saturday, we'll both be looking for a win and will put on the best fight we can, hopefully the best fight of the night. I'll definitely be looking for sub of the night [laughs].

You can listen to the full audio from this interview here

You can follow Cristiano via his Twitter account, @CristianoBJJ