Anderson Silva Makes it 10 Title Defenses
Anderson Silva defeated Middleweight contender Chael Sonnen in round 2 of their bout on Saturday night. Anderson Silva has raised the record of title defense to 10, a feat no other champion has come close to.
Chael Sonnen stood in the cage doorway and welcome Silva to the fight as Silva entered the arena.
The fight started surprisingly well for Sonnen. His desire to take the fight to the mat was no secret.
As promised, Silva threw punches to take Sonnen’s head off, which led to Silva being taken down immediately.
The first round included heavy hands from Sonnen in Silva’s guard. As well as Sonnen passing Silva’s guard and actually mounting the champion for the first time in Silva’s UFC career.
Sonnen failed to capitalize on the mount but won the first round clearly. The fight was going well.
At the beginning of round 2, the fighters engaged against the fence where Silva was warned to stop grabbing Sonnen’s shorts. Silva switched to grabbing on the other side where the ref couldn’t see. As the fighters broke away, Silva could be seen blatantly holding on to Sonnen’s shorts and throwing punches. The ref made no mention.
In the strangest turn of the fight, Chael Sonnen disregarded his tried and proven strategy and attempted a spinning back fist on the champion.
Chael missed, stumbled, and crouched up against the fence. Personally, I had never seen Chael look so afraid. It was very uncharacteristic of Chael Sonnen.
What followed was a devastating knee to Sonnen while he was still on the ground. It appeared illegal in real-time but in slow motion, the knee landed to Chael’s sternum and only Anderson’s thigh connected to Chael’s jaw. Therefore, it was a legal strike.
Chael could not recover and turtled up against the fence taking damage until the referee was forced to stop the fight.
Chael had no words for Silva at the end of the night, but he did manage to shake hands.
Silva admitted that this fight was his most satisfying title defense and even invited Chael Sonnen to a barbeque at his house, should Chael ever decide to accept the offer.
