Tag: Anderson Silva

CagePotato Ban: Blaming an Injury for a Lackluster Performance and Saying God Helped You Beat Someone in a Fight

(Talk of bruised ribs and doing god’s work in the cage don’t belong in a post-fight interview)
Watching Anderson Silva get dominated on the feet and the ground by Chael Sonnen for the better part of five rounds Saturday night at UFC 117, a large number…


(Talk of bruised ribs and doing god’s work in the cage don’t belong in a post-fight interview)

Watching Anderson Silva get dominated on the feet and the ground by Chael Sonnen for the better part of five rounds Saturday night at UFC 117, a large number of fans and pundits assumed out loud that the middleweight champion must be sick or injured. How else could he be outworked, outstruck and outgrappled by Sonnen for over 23 minutes of a championship bout?

It didn’t take long for Silva to nullify the praise Sonnen’s career defining performance was garnering him as he announced in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan that his own somewhat lethargic performance was a result of an injury, not Chael’s nearly perfectly executed game plan.

Besides the slick, yet last-ditch armbar-triangle combo he threw up and was able to catch Chael with in the dying seconds of the fifth round, Anderson really didn’t do a whole lot in the fight, but instead of praising Sonnen for contributing more than his half to their "Fight of the Night" awarded bout, he instead chalked it up to a rib injury he sustained in training more than a week prior to the fight.

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Chael Sonnen Believes ‘the Party Ain’t Over Yet’

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, NewsFollowing his heart-breaking loss to Anderson Silva Saturday night, Chael Sonnen made it very clear at the post-fight press conference that he wanted an immediate rematch against Silva.

That wasn’t just his e…

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Following his heart-breaking loss to Anderson Silva Saturday night, Chael Sonnen made it very clear at the post-fight press conference that he wanted an immediate rematch against Silva.

That wasn’t just his emotions talking. Sonnen obviously thinks he has what it takes to beat the middleweight champion, and his manager, Mike Roberts, backed up his client on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

Roberts said that both he and Sonnen met with the UFC Monday to talk about what’s next for Sonnen, and in that meeting, Sonnen let it be known that he is ready to dance again with “The Spider.”

“We’ve had talks,” Roberts said. “I just had a talk with [the UFC] [Monday] morning. You know, we don’t tell them how to do their job. The only thing that we do is tell them what we want, and the simple question was asked, ‘What does Chael want?’ And Chael’s answer was, ‘I want to do this again. The party ain’t over yet.’

MMA Top 10 Pound-for-Pound: Anderson Silva Slips

Filed under: UFC, WECThere’s another change at the top of my pound-for-pound rankings.

A month ago I dropped Fedor Emelianenko from the top of the list to all the way off the list following his loss to Fabricio Werdum. When Fedor dropped out I moved A…

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There’s another change at the top of my pound-for-pound rankings.

A month ago I dropped Fedor Emelianenko from the top of the list to all the way off the list following his loss to Fabricio Werdum. When Fedor dropped out I moved Anderson Silva to the top. But on Saturday night we watched the worst performance of Anderson Silva’s UFC career, and although Silva pulled off a brilliant submission to win the fight, he struggled enough through the first four and a half rounds that he deserves to drop in the rankings.

Find out who’s No. 1 now, and how far Silva fell, below.

The MMA Wrap-Up: Post-UFC 117 Edition

Filed under: UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, VideosAfter a brief summer lull followed by an incredibly busy weekend in Oakland, The MMA Wrap-Up returns to ask the question: What do we make of both Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva now? As so often seems to be t…

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After a brief summer lull followed by an incredibly busy weekend in Oakland, The MMA Wrap-Up returns to ask the question: What do we make of both Chael Sonnen and Anderson Silva now? As so often seems to be the case after a particularly interesting and entertaining fight card, there really aren’t any easy answers.

Join me as a I stare awkwardly into a camera and talk about the complicated blend of emotions UFC 117 left us with after sweeping in and out of our lives one summer like a beautiful young intern from NYU.

And in case you’re wondering whether it’s worth your time to click the play button below, let me go ahead and assure you that yes, there is at least one Paulo Filho joke in this video. That didn’t help to convince you, did it?

MMA Top 10 Middleweights: Respect for Chael Sonnen

Filed under: UFC, Strikeforce, Sengoku, Rankings, MiddleweightsI didn’t think Chael Sonnen was a serious threat to Anderson Silva, didn’t think their fight would get out of the first round and didn’t think Sonnen could even come close to backing up all…

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I didn’t think Chael Sonnen was a serious threat to Anderson Silva, didn’t think their fight would get out of the first round and didn’t think Sonnen could even come close to backing up all that ridiculous trash talk he spewed in the run-up to their UFC 117 fight on Saturday night.

But while Silva did manage to pull off a fifth-round submission victory, I now believe Sonnen has to be considered the No. 2 middleweight in the world, and I also believe the next middleweight title fight should be Silva-Sonnen 2. No one had ever even come close to beating Silva in the UFC, and Sonnen had victory within his grasp on Saturday night. He deserves another chance.

You know Silva and Sonnen are the top two middleweights in the world. Find out about the rest of the Top 10 below.

Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort and the Art of Cage Politics and Promotion

Filed under: UFCIt has been suggested over the last 24-36 hours that Chael Sonnen laid the blueprint for beating Anderson Silva. That is a bit of simplistic thinking, as there are few middleweights on the earth with Sonnen’s wrestling skills. It’s a li…

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It has been suggested over the last 24-36 hours that Chael Sonnen laid the blueprint for beating Anderson Silva. That is a bit of simplistic thinking, as there are few middleweights on the earth with Sonnen’s wrestling skills. It’s a little like saying Mariano Rivera has laid the blueprint for closing baseball games. Acquire a singular talent over a lifetime of hard work, and apply liberally. Simple, right?

Of course, there is one man who can still follow the blueprint, and that is Sonnen himself, as the UFC mulls over the possibility of an immediate rematch.

It puts the UFC in an interesting quandary. Do they immediately bring back Sonnen, who despite four-plus rounds of dominance, was legitimately defeated, or do they move on to Vitor Belfort, as originally promised? Taking no chances, both men have already begun their campaigns at getting the next shot at the belt.