Chael Sonnen Walks the Walk

For months leading up to UFC 117, Chael Sonnen told the world that he was the guy to bring the fight to Anderson Silva. Sonnen proclaimed that he would take Silva down and pound a hole in his face; he would be the man to beat the best pound for pound fighter in the world.

Not too many people gave Sonnen a chance in this fight but he proved the haters wrong.  Sonnen did not disappoint with his comments nor did he disappoint when it came time to fight.  From the moment the fight started, Sonnen did everything that he said he was going to do except walking out of UFC 117 as the new middleweight champion of the world.

For four rounds, Sonnen dominated Silva in every aspect of the fight.  Sonnen was able to out-strike the greatest striker alive and was able to take Silva down at will.  Sonnen completely dominated Silva everywhere the fight went.  The one thing that Sonnen could not do was finish “The Spider” and this would prove to be costly.

Sonnen rocked Silva on more than one occasion and had the champion right where he wanted him.  Sonnen was able to use his striking to set up his take downs and took Silva to the canvas in every round.  Sonnen did everything he wanted to do to Silva except get him to quit, Silva never quit.

There were times when it looked like Silva was on the brink of defeat but every time he found a way to fight through it and survive to fight another round.  Going into the fifth and final round, Sonnen was up four rounds to none and the fifth round looked to be more of the same.  Sonnen came out, walked through Silva’s strikes and again threw Silva to the mat and began to look to work some ground and pound.

At this point, both fighters were exhausted and Sonnen’s pace slowed drastically, just the opening that Silva needed.  While Sonnen was attempting to work some more ground and pound, he allowed Silva to sneak his legs up and secure a triangle choke.  Sonnen tried to fight out of it but to no avail and eventually tapped the inner thigh of Silva one time.

Referee Josh Rosenthal immediately stepped in and stopped the fight.  Though Sonnen came up short in his quest to be champion, he did win the respect of not just fight fans across the world but of Anderson Silva as well.

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This aticle also appeared on The MMA Corner

Tags: Anderson Silva, Chael Sonnen, MMA, UFC, UFC 117

Category: Exclusive, MMA, UFC