UFC 117: Anderson Silva pulls off miracle win over Chael Sonnen
Anderson Silva, right, punches Chael Sonnen during the Middleweight Championship of UFC 117 in Oakland, Calif. (Aug. 7, 2010) Credit: AP
That's why Anderson Silva is the best there is. Still!
After four-plus rounds of getting beat down by Chael Sonnen, the grounded Silva locked in an arm triangle 3:10 into the final round to submit Sonnen in their middleweight title fight at UFC 117 in Oakland on Saturday night.
Wow.
Um, wow.
"I knew that i was losing the first four rounds," Silva said. Then he added something about a busted rib a few weeks ago.
Sonnen talked an extreme amount of trash leading into the fight and backed up every noun, verb and adjective he said. Sonnen absolutely dominated Silva, the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, for 23 minutes. Heck, Sonnen outstruck Silva in the first round, 51-2., and 218-11 through three rounds, according to the early CompuStrike numbers.
But Anderson Silva is Anderson Silva, and that still means something until the final bell rings.
"I came in second, there's nothing I can say," Sonnen said. "I''m only here to be No. 1. If I'm not the best, I'm going to move on in life."
Sonnen won the first four rounds by taking down Silva and controlling him like we've never seen before. Silva was on his back the entire fight and ate punch after punch after punch from Sonnen. So one-sided was the beating from Sonnen that one judge scored two 10-8 rounds and another judge scored one 10-8 round.
Silva had spent several minutes each round trying for a submission. That's all he could do because Sonnen owned Silva the entire fight. Finally, late in the final round, his title and legacy on the line, Silva managed to slip a triangle around Sonnen's left arm and forced him to tap.
Any questions left about how good Anderson Silva is?
Watch the UFC 117 live video press conference at 1:20 a.m. EDT.
