Former UFC title contender Chael Sonnen and MMA Legend Wanderlei Silva finally had their long coming showdown in a light heavyweight bout in the main event of Bellator NYC on Saturday night in New York City at the most famous arena in the world, Madison Square Garden.
This was a fight that was in the making for years, but the two fighters had to wait to finally fight in Bellator cage. There were questions coming into their fight regarding how both of the fighters would do against each other. Sonnen had his most recent fight against Tito Ortiz in January of this year, but it was a bad performance that bothered him leading into Bellator NYC.
Silva on the flip side had not competed since 2013, and with a long layoff like that, ring rust was no doubt a contributing factor in his mentality going into this fight.
These two fighters put on a wild first round. Sonnen scored a double leg takedown just seconds into the round and landed some solid strikes. Minutes later, Silva exploded to his feet and dropped Sonnen with a right hand with two minutes to go. Sonnen kicked him off and scored a takedown to end the round.
Both fighters exploded out of the corners and started swinging for the fences to begin the second round. Sonnen went in for a takedown but was caught by Silva, who applied a guillotine choke. It was not tight, and Silva held onto the choke for what seemed like forever until John McCarthy stood them up. Sonnen immediately scored a double leg takedown. Sonnen ended the round in full guard.
In the third and final round, Silva threw some wild shots to begin the round, which left the door open for Sonnen to score yet another takedown. Sonnen stayed in top position for the rest of the round while landed strikes. The judges gave Sonnen the unanimous decision win.
Coming out of this fight, Sonnen snapped his two fight losing streak and finally has momentum behind him under the Bellator banner. With Sonnen backing up his trash talk, it will be interesting to see who Bellator pairs him up with next. On the flip side, Silva is no spring chicken and is over 40 years old. One would have to wonder what the future holds for Silva. He is 2-3 in his last five bouts.
Chael Sonnen def. Wanderlei Silva via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-27, 30-27)
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