Fans at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California made it very clear who they were cheering for after both UFC middleweight fighters Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen stepped into the octagon.
Cheers of “Silva, Silva” rang out by fans but they quickly changed their tune to “USA” or “Sonnen, Sonnen.”
In the opening minute of the round the UFC challenger Chael Sonnen backed up his months of smack talk by bringing the fight to Silva. He tagged the champ several times surprising everyone including Silva, who before this fight had been one of the most unscathed fighters in the UFC.
Sonnen hit Silva several times in the first few rounds with some effective strikes. At one point Silva dropped his hands and took two on the chin. It appeared as if: a) he was showing Sonnen that his punches weren’t doing any damage, or b) he was so stunned that he’d actually been hit he didn’t know what to do.
Chael’s standup was only a small part of the fight, as he was able to bring the fight to the mat in each round and keep it there. He proved his high conditioning level by keeping the pressure up on Silva by dominating from the top position for four-and-a-half rounds.
Silva was only able to show some of his standup at the beginning of each round before Sonnen brought him down. He did strike with a short elbow in the fourth from the bottom, opening up a vicious cut over the left eye of Sonnen.
The fifth was much the same as the four other rounds with a flurry of strikes from both fighters in the beginning of the round before Sonnen was able to bring the fight to the ground due to a slip by Silva. Having attempted a few submission attempts in the fight, Silva was able to catch Sonnen in a triangle choke in the last few minutes of the round.
Silva appeared to have the triangle or an armbar as Sonnen attempted to escape but was unable and appeared to tap out as referee Josh Rosenthal stepped in to stop the fight. There was confusion from both fighters, the fans, as well as both corners as to whether Sonnen tapped or not.
“The Spider” was quick to put his hands up to signify the victory, and before the crowd could get unruly due to a bad call, technicians had the replay up showing a tap by Sonnen to end the fight at 3:10. Silva successfully defended his UFC title for a record seven straight times after winning the middleweight championship in October 2006.