Many in mixed martial arts circles are calling the fight between Silva and Sonnen one of the best in recent memory.
View full sizeAnderson Silva, right, took a beating for most of the match last Saturday but managed to get Chael Sonnen to submit in the fifth round to retain the UFC middleweight title in Oakland, Calif.Anderson Silva is still the UFC middleweight champion. But just barely.
With less than three minutes remaining in the five-round fight, the longest-reigning title holder in UFC history managed to secure Chael Sonnen in a triangle choke and force him to submit.
The win runs Silva's record to 26-4. Sonnen drops to 26-10.
Many in mixed martial arts circles called it one of the best fights in recent memory. Certainly few expected the journeyman Sonnen to dominate the champ as he did for just about the entire fight. Even Silva admitted later that he knew he had to do something, that he had lost the first four rounds.
"Chael deserved to be here tonight," UFC President Dana White said at the post-fight news conference. "He talked a lot of smack and came in here and backed it up.
"The fight that happened tonight is the stuff that makes legends. This guy [Silva] got roughed up and beat up for al most five full rounds, but he found a way to win," White said.
Even battered and beaten, and after grudgingly admitting that Silva came through as champions do -- Sonnen's mouth was still running. "I'm like a bomb, and when I go off, everybody gets dirty," he said.
"These guys need to get thicker skins," an unrepentant Sonnen told reporters. "Everybody in the UFC should offer an apology . . . except me. You stick a microphone in a guy's face and he calls out anybody except the champion, and Joe Silva [UFC's matchmaker] should fax him a pink slip right then.
"There's a lot of camaraderie that comes from this sport, but fighting Anderson Silva is like eating Chinese food. Twenty minutes after I do it, I'm gonna want to do it again."
He may get that chance, but likely it will be down the road. Consider Vitor Belfort, a Brazilian with a 19-8 record who, like Sonnen, has earned most of his victories with submissions. Sonnen's loss elevates the 33-year-old Belfort to the top contender's spot.
Maybe.
"It's definitely a rematch that I think people are going to want to see," White conceded in his remarks. "I keep looking at Twitter and I keep seeing 'Rematch!' 'Rematch!' So we'll see. Vitor is waiting to fight right now, too, so we'll see what happens."
Silva, who was uncharacteristically loquacious during his turn at the news conference, said that he suffered a rib injury training for the fight with Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii. Ishii was working with the champion and fellow UFC star Lyoto Machida at the Black House gym outside Los Angeles.
Doctors and officials of his camp advised against fighting, Silva said, but he made the decision because "I believe the show must go on."
View full sizeThe battle between former UFC heavyweight titleholder Randy Couture, left, and former three-division world boxing champion James Toney will draw a lot of interest on Aug. 28. Up next: UFC 118 on Saturday, Aug. 28, will be a rematch between lightweight title holder Frankie Edgar (12-1) and B.J. Penn (15-6-1), who lost the title to Edgar in April. Penn is one of only two UFC fighters to hold titles in two divisions (lightweight and welterweight). The other is Randy Couture, the former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champ who will pit his mixed martial arts skills against veteran boxer James Toney that same night.
The Couture-Toney fight is supposed to settle once and for all whether boxing or MMA is the ultimate challenge, but this one probably won't do it. Both Couture, 47, and Toney, who will be 42 four days before the fight, are past their prime in their respective sports. Add to that the fact that this fight will be under MMA rules. Couture may have gotten a bit soft, filming his role in Sylvester Stallone's new action movie "The Expendables," and Toney may have put a lot of training time in the gym learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu and other arms of MMA. But the odds are Couture will win, and win handily.
The fight is in Boston's TD Gardens, and also will be broadcast to select movie theaters, including several in Cuyahoga County. Fans can contact their local cable and satellite providers for pay-per-view information.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: cyarborough@plaind.com, 216-999-4534