Anderson Silva cemented his name as the 'Pound for Pound King' with a second round TKO stoppage against Chael Sonnen to retain the UFC Middleweight Championship.
The build-up to the fight saw the war of the words, with the nature of the fight turning personal, as remarks ranged from insulting a nation to threats of breaking bones. Sonnen had made it clear that his game-plan was to mirror the first fight at UFC 117, to utilise his wrestling and reign down ground and pound until his opponent broke.
In the opening round Sonnen immediately pushed forward for the takedown but failed to land any significant strikes whilst in dominant positions.
The contrast in round two saw Silva's improved takedown defence resulting in a stand-up fight, arguable favouring Silva. The end came when Sonnen slipped after missing a spinning back-fist, which Silva immediately capitalised with a knee to the sternum, swiftly followed by ground and pound; Sonnen managed to return to his feet but was greeted by several strikes forcing him back to the canvas, resulting in referee Yves Lavigne stopping the fight at 1minute 55seconds in round 2.
Silva extends his UFC record's for the 'most consecutive victories' at 15 victories and 'most consecutive title defences' at 10 and was awarded the 'Fight of The Night' bonus of $70,000 in addition to his purse.
The Co-Main Event saw Forrest Griffin edging ahead of the score-cards to win by a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). Concluding the epic trilogy between recently inducted Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz and Forest Griffin; UFC 56 in 2006 saw Ortiz winning by a split decision and UFC 106 in 2009 saw Griffin winning by a split decision.
UFC 148 is to be the final fight in the legendary career of "The People's Champ" Tito Ortiz, the former "Huntington Beach Bad Boy" is to retire but will always be remembered as being one of the pioneers of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
No comments:
Post a Comment