UFC
UFC 117 RESULTS: Anderson Silva retains Middleweight Title in epic come from behind submission victory over Chael Sonnen
Aug 8, 2010 - 9:20:17 AM UFC 117 RESULTS: Anderson Silva retains Middleweight Title in epic come from behind submission victory over Chael Sonnen

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Chael Sonnen entered the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday night as the trash talking challenger, and he came within two minutes of becoming the UFC Middleweight Champion.

Putting on an absolute clinic of wrestling top control and ground and pound through 22 and a half minutes of his fight with Anderson Silva at UFC 117, Sonnen found himself caught in a triangle choke midway through the third round and was forced to tap with under two minutes remaining in the fight.

The fight itself was exhilarating; a five round battle that saw Anderson Silva legitimately in trouble multiple times for the first time in his career. The comeback submission victory for Silva simply capped off the excitement that came from the runaway "Fight of the Year."

Sonnen started the beating early, actually out-striking Silva in the first round. He rocked the Champion on a couple of occasions early on, something that simply hasn't been done in Silva's UFC career. Sonnen then got the fight to the ground, and the story of the fight began.

Sonnen put on a brutally dominating display of ground and pound, keeping himself active in Silva's guard, landing punches to the body and head, throwing in elbows and short forearm shots as well.

He was able to repeat the feat in the second and third rounds as well, constantly putting "The Spider" on his back, all the while staying conscious of submission attempts from Silva on the bottom. Through three rounds, Sonnen out landed Silva 218-11 in the striking department, a massively one-sided figure. The majority of those blows came on the ground from a very active Sonnen.

Silva tried to turn up the heat at the beginning of each of the Championship rounds, and he showed Sonnen that it wasn't where he wanted to be. Silva landed an straight forearm/elbow from short range in the fifth round that nearly finished the challenger right then and there. But Sonnen stayed resilient on his feet and once again brought Silva to the ground in both rounds, spending the vast majority of the fight in top control.

But in the end, Sonnen found himself caught in a similar situation to what he'd encountered many times throughout his career. Already the victim of seven submission losses, Sonnen got caught in a slick triangle choke that Silva locked on quickly and tightly. Sonnen made a desperate attempt to get out of the hold, but finally tapped.

There was some initial confusion, as Sonnen tried to claim to referee Josh Rosenthal that he hadn't tapped, but Rosenthal had come in to stop the fight, and Silva got up off the ground and raised his hands. It's a tactic he had tried to pull before, most notably his armbar loss to Paulo Filho in the WEC in which he verbally submitted, yet claims to this day that he did not. But subsequent replays showed he clearly tapped once on the leg of Silva, similar to Fedor Emelianenko's one tap against Fabricio Werdum in June.

The dramatic, exhilarating and epic come from behind win marked Silva's record seventh consecutive title victory. And in a UFC career that has seen him dominate opponents as often as he toyed with them, there was no disappointment in this fight. Silva earned his greatest UFC victory in what was ultimately the greatest fight of 2010, and one of the greatest title fights in the history of the UFC.