After being utterly dominated by Chael Sonnen for the first four rounds and a good part of the fifth during a Middleweight Championship fight at UFC 117 at Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA, defending champion Anderson Silva wouldn’t go down without a fight.
Silva was able to get Sonnen into a triangle choke and got him to tapout at 3:10 of the fifth round to retain his Middleweight title. This was only the third championship fight in UFC history to end in the fifth round.
There was a little controversy at the end of the fight as it was thought that Sonnen didn’t tapout but replays showed that he in fact did tapout to give Silva the win.
While he controlled the entire fight, Sonnen wasn’t able to beat “The Spider”. Silva moves to 12-0 in his UFC career.
I would expect a rematch between the pair somewhere down the line. Sonnen definitely deserves it after that fight.
Here’s the entire fifth round plus post-fight interviews for your enjoyment:
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