(Video courtesy YouTube/MMAScraps)

Ed Soares, the manager of a large contingent of the UFC’s Brazilian roster including Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos and the Nogueira brothers, was on MMA Scraps radio last week and was asked about Vitor Belfort calling him a clown for mistranslating his fighters interviews.  

Although he didn’t address the actual issue of him allegedly misrepresenting what his clients say on the mic in this clip, (he admits doing it in another portion of the interview) Soares did say that he has spoken to Belfort and has since "squashed" any beef they had.


It makes you wonder if he had attempted his "Brazilian Whisperer" techniques on Chael Sonnen and they became BFFs if UFC 117 still would have hit over a million pay-per-view buys.

Here’s Ed’s translation of what went down with with "The Phenom":

"You know what’s funny? About two weeks ago I saw this interview where Vitor told me to keep my mouth shut and then my attourney emailed me this interview where he called me a clown. At the end of the day I said, "That’s cool." So I called Vitor’s manager because I have his number and I said, "Hey dude. What’s the deal?" Then Vitor called me and I said ‘What’s your problem, bro?’ and we talked it all out man to man. I said, ‘I never said anything about you in the media and I just find it to be disrespectful and if you got something to say, say it to me ‘cos I’ll say it to you. I just did. I called you.’ It wasn’t in a confrontational way. It was just kind of like, ‘Hey, man. We’re grown men.’ It was obvious that…Vitor apologized to me. He said he got caught up in the emotions. He was like, ‘Dude, I got caught up. I started believing in what these reporters were saying you said,’ and I said, ‘Man, if you didn’t hear it come out of my mouth, how can you just believe that?’ But he apologized to me and he even told me that he was going to give a public apology and I said, ‘Hey, dude. There’s no need for that. As long as you and I are straight, I don’t really care what other people say. He said, ‘Okay, cool,’ and then he called me back about an hour and a half later. He said, ‘I really want to do a public apology. I started thinking about it and I’m really sorry. I’m a man and people make mistakes and I apologize. It was my fault that I did that. I said, ‘Hey listen, dude. If you really want to do that, that’s fine — that’s great with me. But like I said, man, it’s straight between me and you. From now on I think if you ask Vitor anything about me, he’s got my number and if there’s something he wants to ask about me, he’ll call me directly. So as far as all that goes, that’s all squashed. I can understand that sometimes emotions get the best of people. Everyone’s human, man. People make mistakes.’

I guess we’ll have to wait for Vitor’s apology to see if the story is legit.

Soares also addressed the growing opinion of message board posters that he’s an asshole:

"As long as I put my head on my pillow at night and I know that I do the best job I can for my fighters and they know that, I guess it doesn’t really matter what the fans say. Of course it bums people out. It bums me out when I hear what people say about our guys and what people say about me. I’m thinking ‘This guy doesn’t even know me and he’s calling me a douchebag or he’s calling me a thumb bag. You know what’s funny? Once in a while I’ll read the [mixedmartialarts.com] Underground [forums] and people are calling me a douchebag and I’ll show my wife and she’ll say, ‘Who in the hell are these people? I’m the only one who can call you a douchebag.’ She’s upset that she’s not the one calling me a douchebag. I’m like, ‘Then log in and tell them that.’"

Defending  James Toney, who has quickly become one of the biggest, albeit most unintelligible, smack talkers on the UFC’s roster and who Soares revealed will be of his company Sinister’s sponsored fighters for UFC 118, he says that any fighter who increases MMA’s popularity can’t be bad for the sport.

"James Toney is going to be walking out in Sinister. I think James Toney is going to be great for the sport, man. People have always asked, ‘What would happen if a boxer gets into the sport?’ Guess what, man? August 28 we’re going to se it, what’s going to happen. What’s not great about it. People have always talked about it and now we’re going to see it happen. It’s a little bit of a freakshow fight, but at the end of the day, it’s a fight that’s going to sell and people are going to watch. Anything that gets more eyeballs on this sport and keeps this sport going — that’s what we should all be striving for, because at the end of the day, the bigger this sport gets, the bigger your radio show gets, the bigger all of our guys get and the more money that’s in the industry. James Toney, I heard he’s pretty good on the ground. I don’t know. His hands…nobody can  doubt what he’s done with his hands. He’s a legend in boxing, fighting a legend in MMA. Come on, man. You’re fighting Randy Couture. This is what, his first MMA fight. What an honor to be in your first MMA fight to be fighting a guy the calibre of Randy Couture. That’s incredible to me as far as I’m concerned."