Chael Sonnen Nearly Demolishes Anderson Silva, Silva Escapes with a Last Minute Triangle Choke

8 August 2010, 12:27pm, Manila time

As I write, there's just a few seconds left in second round of the Chael Sonnen - Anderson Silva UFC middleweight championship bout. The second round has just ended wherein Sonnen landed punishing blows to Silva's face after taking him down early in the round.

It's now the third round and early on after some shots by Silva, Chael takes him down again. On top of Anderson Silva, Sonnen rains a flurry of knees and multiple shots on the face. If this trend doesn't change, Silva with end this night with Chael Sonnen snatching his middleweight belt. In addition, on the line is Anderson Silva's unblemished record of 11 straight wins in the octagon. This is now a battle of attrition with Anderson Silva on the losing end. The round is winding up but the gradual beating he's getting from Chael Sonnen is sure to eat up his strength and perhaps even more importantly, his confidence.

Anderson Silva caught Chael Sonnen with some big shots early in the fourth round but Chael Sonnen survives the flurry and is now on top of Anderson Silva again with 3:10 remaining in the round raining shots again on the face of the champion. The crowd is chanting "USA, USA, USA ...!" expecting a win by the American Chael Sonnen. Round 4 ends with Chael Sonnen taking every opportunity -- even small ones -- to punish Anderson Silva.

The replay shows a right elbow by Anderson Silva catching Chael Sonnen on the face.

Start of Round 5. Chael Sonnen rocks Anderson Silva with a right sending him to the canvas. The pattern continues, with more than 4 minutes remaining, Anderson Silva is once again a target to Chael Sonnen's relentless ground and pound. With 2:50 remaining, Chael rains down punches on Anderson's face. With a little over 2 minutes remaining, Chael Sonnen appears ready to wear Anderson Silva's UFC middleweight belt.

But in what is easily one of the UFC's most dramatic escape finishes, with less than two minutes remaining in the bout, Anderson manages to squeeze his left leg over Chael Sonnen's head and from there, implemented a triangle choke forcing the American to tap.

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Manny Pacquiao Wins ESPY 2009 Best Fighter Award, Beats Out Lyoto Machida, Shane Mosley and Anderson Silva

16 July 2009

Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao has won the ESPY 2009 Best Fighter award beating out fellow boxer Shane Mosley and top-ranked MMA stars Lyoto Machida and Anderson Silva, both UFC champions. 

In winning the award given out by ESPN, Manny joined the likes of American swimmer Michael Phelps (best male athlete), Russian-American gymnast Nastia Liukin (best female athlete), golfer great Tiger Woods (best male golfter) and NBA superstar Lebron James (best NBA player) among others.

For more details, check out this GMANews.tv article. 

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As Audience Booed, Anderson Silva Toys With Outclassed Thales Leites

19 April 2009

The largely French-Canadian crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec booed as Anderson Silva toyed with a thoroughly-outclassed Thales Leites in their UFC 97 middleweight title showdown.

I predicted it would be a Silva "walkaway" but what I didn't realize is that I would find myself walking a lot away from the TV set as the fight proved to be another Anderson Silva disappointment.  UFC fight fans will recall that Silva's last title defense in UFC 90 against Patrick Cote was another big disappointment as the French-Canadian challenger was unable to continue in the third round after pulling a muscle in one of his legs. In that fight, even the commentators were surprised at the way that Silva appeared to dance while fighting Cote.  Prior to the Cote fight, Silva had disposed of all his opponents in overpowering fashion thereby establishing an aura of invincibility about him.

It's not that Silva failed to dominate his opponent this time; he did, especially when the match entered the fourth round when he repeatedly landed punishing kicks to Leites' left leg and unanswered blows. At one time, he even managed to deliver what appeared to be a Bruce Lee flying kick. Leites did have his moment early in the second round when he was able to take Silva down and for a few moments seemed poised to utilize his world-champion jiu-jitsu skills against his fellow Brazilian.  But Silva is also a BJJ black belt and his skills were more than adequate to allow him to stand up with 2:18 remaining in the second round.

From then on, it was a one-sided lackluster affair as Leites repeatedly fell to the floor, obviously deliberate, in an attempt to lure Silva to the ground as well as escape the latter's superior stand-up hitting power.

I'd say that the highlight of the match, at least to the French-Canadian crowd, was when they started cheering "GSP," referring to UFC welterweight champion George St. Pierre, who watched the fight from ringside.  GSP had just come off a brilliant definitive victory over long-time UFC rival BJ Penn on January 31 (February 1, Manila time).  

Silva won the fight via unanimous decision and with his ninth unbroken win shattered the standing UFC record for most consecutive wins in the octagon. 

What's happened to Silva?  I believe he's become the victim of his own incomparable mixed-martial arts skills. Too good to be beaten but not good enough to prevent escape by opponents who seemed to have developed evasive skills ensured to beat the interest and patience out of even the most avid aficionado.  Or maybe, he's just run out of opponents who are foolhardy enough to run into a barrage of devastating kicks and punches.

I'm sure UFC top honcho Dana White has reminded Silva that "The customer is king" and that he'd better start developing imaginative counter-evasion skills if he wants any further meaty bookings in the UFC. He'll need it if he wants his next fight to draw even half-excited audiences. 

Link Update: 20 April 2009, 1:12pm Manila time

Michael David Smith created a link to this post yesterday and that somehow has been lost so I'm re-creating it here:  UFC 97 Live Blog: Anderson Silva vs. Thales Leites.

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Rua beats Liddell in UFC 97 Heartbreaker

19 April 2009

BREAKING NEWS

Mauricio "Shogun" Rua scores a huge victory over Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell in their UFC 97 light heavyweight encounter at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  The fighters were just about even when Rua floored Liddell with a big left hook inside the last minute of the first round and followed it with several hammer fists to Liddell's face forcing referee Mario Yamasaki to stop the bout at 4:28 of the first round.

It was Liddell's fourth loss in his last five fights. Interviewed by Joe Rogan after the fight, Liddell was visibly dejected and could say little but I did not hear him say anything about retiring.  Many people expect the 39-year-old Liddell to retire if he loses this fight.  

As I post, they're announcing the main event between Anderson "The Spider" Silva and the number one contender Thales Leites. I expect it to be a Silva walkaway. It will be the shocker of UFC history if it turns out otherwise. 

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