Talk before the storm for UFC's Chael Sonnen in Burbank

The talk — quick-witted, often humorous, sometimes puzzling, always interesting — from Sonnen is nothing new, but roughly a week earlier during a UFC conference call, Silva surprised many with some now infamous statements.

"I'm going to break his face and every tooth in his mouth," Silva said through interpreter Ed Soares. "I know he's on the call listening to this and playtime is over. … I'm going to make him pay for everything he's said about me, my family and my country. I'm going to beat him maybe like his parents should have to teach him some manners."

Indeed, Sonnen, taking the call from his home, heard it all and said it made no matter to him.

"It was nice to see the real him come through. You know, this guy's a dirtbag. It was good to see the real him come through," Sonnen said. "You gotta understand, if you knew your funeral was coming up, you'd have parting words, as well.

"This is the funeral for his career, this is it, this is the end of the road."

The end of the road is set for Saturday at the MGM Grand, with prelims airing on FX before the pay-per-view telecast at 7 p.m., which also features Forrest Griffin-Tito Ortiz III. And on that night, Sonnen, a master storyteller and thought-provoker who will just as easily engage in a conversation about politics as mixed martial arts, will get back to doing what he does best.

"This is the only game I know how to play. I've never seen a football game my whole life, I've never seen a basketball game," Sonnen said. "I only know this sport. I only know combat."