It wasn’t easy or pretty for Chael Sonnen, but in the end, the UFC Middleweight Division contender did just enough to earn a unanimous decision victory over Michael Bisping at UFC on Fox 2 and score a championship rematch with Anderson Silva.
As is so often the case in the UFC, these two fiery adversaries weren’t supposed to fight each other on Saturday night in Chicago. Sonnen was originally scheduled to meet Mark Munoz in the Octagon, but Munoz pulled out earlier this month on account of an injury. With Munoz out, UFC president Dana White filled the opening with Bisping, who’d been expecting to face Demian Maia.
Chris Weidman, Bisping’s replacement, defeated Maia by unanimous decision.
Bisping displayed some serious moxie throughout the match, grappling with Sonnen against the cage for much of the first two rounds. Sonnen attempted several times to take “The Count” down but found the Briton difficult to keep down on the mat.
The fight largely fluctuated between slow struggles along the fence and furious strike showdowns in the middle of the Octagon through Rounds 1 and 2.
It wasn’t until Round 3 that Sonnen found room to thrust his preferred style firmly on the fight. With the two combatants noticeably drained, Sonnen went straight for the takedown, keeping Bisping on the ground for the bulk of the frame.
Sonnen spent plenty of time on top of Bisping, engaged in full mount but found it difficult to get much of a sustained ground-and-pound going against Bisping’s expert defense. At one point, Sonnen resorted to lifting Bisping up slightly and slamming him into the mat.
Still, Bisping couldn’t quite weasel his way out of Sonnen’s control until the final minute of the fight. Bisping was ultimately able to get back to his feet and even score a takedown of his own on Sonnen, though it was abundantly clear by that point that Sonnen had forced the judges to make a tough decision.
In the end, the folks at ringside favored Sonnen, 30-27 29-28 29-28, though Bisping had nothing for which to be ashamed. He gave the No. 2 middleweight all he could handle through three grueling rounds, never allowing Sonnen to completely impose his will and getting in some rather surprising maneuvers of his own.
Even so, the night and the fight belonged to Sonnen, and deservedly so. Sonnen’s gritty effort earned him a rematch with Anderson Silva, whom he nearly upended back in August of 2010 before “The Spider” forced him into submission with a triangle arm bar at the 3:10 mark of the fifth round.
Now comes the really difficult part for Sonnen—improving upon that effort against the man who may well be the best mixed-martial artist in the world today.
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